Mash flew across the skies, abusing the bonus stats from hunger as they finally petered out. He didn’t go along his route or go to dismantle any more slave armies. It was done already. Every slave in the entire world is probably free now. Most of the slavers were dead too. The northern kingdom was crippled. Most of the lords and kings in the north weren’t slavers, but that didn’t mean they didn’t abuse them. Armies all over the continent broke, cities collapsed, and revolution occurred all over the planet. Mash could only see the north, but he knew that his power had reached beyond this continent. Just what was happening in the rest of the world?

“Where are we going?”

His thoughts were broken by a very annoying dragon. The white dragon, who he had discovered was called Ythass, was friendly and open. At first, it was fine, but it had already been over an hour, and she hadn’t been able to go thirty seconds in silence. She could only be described as annoyingly social. He didn’t want to be rude and leave her unanswered either. When she asked questions or talked, she did it with genuine interest. That fact made it extremely difficult to lie or deny her any answer. She might be a spoiled child, but she was an honest one. He sighed a little.

“We are avoiding all the people following me and trying to get to my friends safely. Then we can go to my world and talk freely.”

Mash said the words casually. So far, their conversation hadn’t been important. They hadn’t talked about his powers or life. She hadn’t shared anything of her power. No, they talked about more mundane things. Things like humans and what they thought of dragons. The reverse situation too. He had asked her what dragons ate and learned that they survived by consuming magic. Apparently, it was kind of like a magical plant.

His reply caused her to pause. She froze for a second before zooming in to catch up again. Her excitement was palpable as she spoke.

“Wait, what do you mean by your world? How could you own a world?”

He shrugged his shoulders lightly before responding.

“Again, it’s a long story. Actually, it’s not. I got it from a skill, and can you change into a humanoid or animal?”

She glanced at his very large and obviously draconic wings but nodded. Then she spoke a word slowly. The language was not one he recognized, but his item translated it all the same.

“Partial Polymorph.”

Her body shone with a blue light. It changed in an instant, and she went from a white-scaled dragon. She turned into a partially human girl. Partially because she still had a pair of wings and a tail, but they were much smaller now. Those things alone wouldn’t cause any issues, but there were other aspects of her appearance that were more problematic. She was beautiful with skin that was impossibly white. It wasn’t a shade skin could have. On top of that, her hair and eyes were pure black. Her pupils were shaped like slits. Not a single other color marred her at all. She even had clothes in the form of scale armor. The armor was comprised of tiny white scales that perfectly fit to her body and ran up to her chin.

That armor was the problem. It radiated magic like a lantern, and it was clearly valuable. Beyond that, it was something that stood out. He honestly had to consider if this form would cause more problems.

“Can you change that appearance more? I think you are still going to stand out.”

Ythass shook her head to the side.

“No. I simply choose a species. I haven’t learned the spells needed to change my body like that without risk. This spell lets me keep most of my abilities even when I change species.”

Mash nodded but considered her words. So, what she had said was a spell. He knew of some people with skills that let them do the same.

[Can I do that?]

[Why?]

Priscilla’s reply came with an image of him. He got the idea. His body was his to change at will. A spell like that wouldn’t do anything, but his question was meant to be more general. She responded to that thought too.

[Your magic is far freer and more useful than any spell.]

[That’s probably true.]

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

There was little he couldn’t do with his magic. In fact, the way he could mix magic likely surpassed any spell.

He talked with Ythass for the rest of their journey. This time they talked a little bit about his world. It was something he didn’t mind mentioning. Plenty of people knew about it. She had asked him a lot of questions about his world, and this one.

That was the conversation he had aloud. He had another private conversation with Priscilla at the same time. Priscilla told him about the rest of the world, and the consequences of his fight. More than just the north was devasted by the attack. The beastmen king’s revolt had suffered as his armies betrayed him. His control over monsters broke, and he didn’t have the time to regain control. Apparently, that was enough of an advantage for Irkish to capture the king. Although some of the high-level leaders of the army had escaped.

All of that was a good byproduct of his actions. There was a long list of bad ones. Far too many people had died as monsters and beasts broke free of their restraints, as prisoners escaped their shackles. Those were just the deaths that Priscilla had the chance to hear about. She had bodies with plenty of people at this point, but she didn’t know everything. The knowledge weighed on him. Far too many people had died because of him. He pushed through the thoughts as he saw his destination.

His domain had shrunk considerably now, and he was relying on Priscilla to guide him. Now he could see them again and noticed some changes. Lisa was different now. Her body was no longer human according to his domain. In fact, she wasn’t even alive. It was as if she had become a manifestation of mana. He would’ve thought it was a clone if not for Priscilla. She told him that Lisa had advanced. Mash was excited to hear about the changes in person and flew a little faster for the final stretch.

His friends were prepared for his arrival and rushed outside as he landed. Their expressions were mixed, though he was pleased to see both Jill and Lisa with smiles. Jill shouted up to him

“Mash! You were only supposed to beat the northern kingdoms. Not every kingdom!”

She shouted because of the distance, not out of anger. If anything, she seemed excited by the prospect, and he grinned as he landed.

“Yeah, but I thought this would be faster.”

Jill shook her head slowly but smiled all the same. They all had expressions that said they expected something along these lines. Mash’s attention was on Lisa though. Her skin was light blue and translucent. It made her seem kind of like a ghost or apparition, almost like he was staring directly at her soul. On top of that, she had become radiant. She had always been beautiful, but now it was a surreal kind of appearance. Something you couldn’t believe even after seeing her. Without his domain, he would’ve been certain that he was looking at an elemental. Lisa noticed his stares and glanced away a little.

“Welcome back.”

She mumbled the words, and Mash smiled a bit wider. The words weren’t complex, but they reminded him that he had a place to belong. Whatever he did, he was sure that his friends would be there for him. His family too, well at least his siblings would.

“Hello, friends of Mash. I am Ythass. Mash had promised to show me his world.”

The way she said that had to be intentional, but then he saw her face and noticed the honest expression on her face. Why was a dragon-like this searching for a mate from another species? Also, where was her mother?

“I’m going to take that statement at face value, but that still leaves plenty of questions. Let’s start with your identity.”

Red spoke with a single eyebrow raised. Mash cleared his throat, not trusting the dragon to say anything else.

“She’s a dragon. Now let’s have the rest of this discussion later.”

An archway rose behind his friends, and he waved his hands at it. His friends did not move, and he had to push them through the portal. They had frozen at his words. Talking about anything important out in the open wasn’t as a big of a deal with his domain. He could tell if people were listening. No, the reason he wanted to go to his world was because of what he knew was coming. The dragon found him without much difficulty, but the others were scouring the area for him. They had found his trail and would find him soon enough. Well, they would’ve found him if he didn’t escape to an entirely different world.

He stepped through the portal with Ythass and was greeted with a set of blank stares; disbelieving stares of incredulity were aimed at Ythass. She smiled at them and waved casually. They did not wave back and remained silent. Mash cleared his throat again as he let the portal close behind him.

“Yeah, she’s really a dragon. Those scales are very real.”

He gestured at the pristine white scales that made up her armor. Ythass nodded her head as he spoke and told them of their meeting. She was quiet for all of a minute while he explained. As soon as she felt he had said enough, she cut in excitedly.

“So, I’m here. He promised to tell me how his power worked and how he got it.”

Jill held up a hand to stop her.

“Wait, let me get this straight. You, a dragon, came here because Mash promised to tell you about his secrets. Why? I mean, why do you care about him or any of this?”

Jill said the words slowly, sounding more unsure by the end of it. Ythass smiled revealing a row of sharpened fangs.

“Yes. It is interesting, and I was bored. A new greater being or race is rare. Also, as a dragon, I should be aware of other immortal species. And dragons can breed with any other race and do so regularly. There are many humans with dragon blood. I didn’t come alone either. I’m alone now, but a few had come with me. They didn’t care as much about Mash once they saw him. Plus. He insulted us at first, so I wasn’t surprised to hear that they didn’t want to stick around. Also, I can just tell them when I get back.”

Ythass liked to talk, and that became evident to everyone within a few moments. Mash cut in happily, he had questions to ask. Most importantly, he wanted to know what the general or king had told them.

“Ok, I think they understand. Now, I want to know what the kingdom told you so far.”