Each time I cast 'erase memory', part of the mind palace breaks. The seemingly infinite sky starts cracking. The grass withers, revealing old, cold ash. Most importantly, the mind palace becomes unable to erase any long term memories.
Unfortunately, even after using almost all of my mana on 'erase memory', the mind palace is still strong enough to keep me trapped. The low ambient mana slows down mana regeneration significantly. I doubt I'll be able to cast 'erase memory' for a few days. And by then the mind palace would've healed all the damage I caused. Which means if I want to do something, now's the time.
The only thing I can think of is the cracked sky. If I fly into a crack, what happens? Theoretically, I'd escape the mind palace. Which is exactly what I want to do, what a coincidence.
After stretching my wings, (I had to keep them folded while traversing the caves,) I use what little mana I have left to cast 'gravitas'. After 10 seconds, gravity reversed. Kicking off of the ground, I dive upwards towards the nearest crack in the sky.
Upon collision, my perception disappeared. It was instantaneously replaced by pure, undiluted emotions and memories. Knowledge and sensations that'd drive anyone insane. It flowed into my mind so fast, I swear I could feel myself go insane.
Actually... not really. I mean, don't get me wrong. The taste of dragon flesh, the squish of angel eyes, the chill of demon tongue. I'm sure a normal dragon'd go crazy experiencing all this. But to be honest, it all feels mundane. I like the taste of dragon flesh, eating eyes never bothered me, and the demon tongue felt a lot like ice troll.
Ah, I think the... mind? Wherever I am, it's listening to what I'm saying thinking. It changed the memories going into my head. Looks like a war. A quite devastating one, it seems. Lots of dead dragons, a few bastards, demons? and angels? Wow, this memory must be old. Hm? Am I supposed to feel something? Sorry, I don't have empathy unfortunately.
Next up is memories of love. I assume its supposed to cause jealousy or something. Sorry, but I don't think I can feel love, so I honestly don't care. Hey, why can I smell frustration... I don't even understand how I smelled an emotion.
Oh look, a lava bath. Haven't had one of those in years. I wonder if there's still magma in the deepest parts of the volcano. Ah, a switch to a nice thunderstorm. Goes well with the smell of relaxation. Too bad the lightning is distracting. Ah, are you trying to get me to fall asleep or something? I should remind you that dragons can go months without sleep.
Please stop being frustrated. It smells weird. Like an over-ripe fruit or something. Oh, you don't know what that means? Wow, you must be old to not know fruit. It's like... do you know what a nut is? That but softer, I guess? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what a fruit is specifically.
Oh, a new memory. A... picnic? So quaint. Oh, there's some fruits; pumpkins, watermelon, cucumber, and brilms. So you do know what a fruit is. Hm? What's a vegetable? No, these are clearly fruit. What do you mean I'm being pedantic?
Why are you showing me a crab? No, that is not a fish, that's a crab. What do you mean "crab shaped fish?" Alright, two can play at that game. Ever heard of a vampire squid? A bit red, found deep in the ocean, tastes good with direboar ears. Yeah, that. That isn't a squid. No, it's not an octopus either.
Wait where did this scoreboard come from? Are you challenging me to a trivia competition? Well, I'd accept, except it's a bit too annoying trying to explain stuff... What do you mean "just transfer your memories?" the closest thing to that I can do is erase memories. Sub-spell? 'Erase memory', the spell so dangerous that all ways to learn it was destroyed, is actually a sub-spell for an even more powerful spell?
...cool. And what makes you think I know the root spell? I... taste like I know it? Weird, but ok. Next question, why are you telling me this. I know that you know that I know that 'erase memory' hurts you, and I can only guess the damage the full spell can do.
A deal? My soul for knowledge... nah. Sounds like a terrible deal. Oh, a secondary offer? "The soul of two dozen dragons?" Yeah, easy. Hell, I'll give you a downpayment of 8 dragon souls, already in my stomach. Not my younger brother's soul though; that's worth more.
Why are you so surprised? I told you, I don't have empathy. No, I'm not a demon. I'm also not an angel. I'm a dragon. Whatever, we're getting off track. Tell me about the spell. Oh, you'll give a bonus if I promise something? What's that?
...
Sure. It'll take a while, but I have time. We can talk about stuff in the meantime. For example, what's your favorite food?
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Ha! Checkmate! That's another point for me! Hm? You ran out of room on the scoreboard? Isn't the scoreboard just a virtual creation that can be as big as you want? You... ran out of room in your mind? Why is that?
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Me being here is killing you? Sucks to be you. Oh, you're serious. You want me to leave? Fine, but only because we have a deal going. Yes, 16 more dragon souls and part of a daevva. Upon completion I get your 'blessing'. Am I good to go?
Alright, thanks for keeping me company. See you on the outsi-
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Interlude; Zesmo's Diary
Day 17:
I hate dragon blood. Well, I guess hate is a bit too strong. It's more that I'm sick of eating only dragon blood every morning. I want a taste of actual meat! Unfortunately, as the youngest royal Esmo, I only get to eat dragon tumor once every three days.
I know it's because my body is still developing and all that, but at least let me eat something other than blood! I heard Desmo had a secret stash of ygdril peppers. I'm sure I can find it if I look hard enough. Unfortunately, I don't have the free time for that.
I have to deal with another 'cult of the mimicry' today. I swear we should just destroy that pretender. It's not like we'll be punished for it or anything. Mother says she agrees, but then why is the pretender still kept hanging below the beacon formation?
Whatever. I can't do anything about it. What I can do is destroy the cults. This time I'm going with units z-11 and z-15. I'll try not to break them this time.
Day 18:
It was a success, no casualties, blah blah. This isn't an official document, it's a diary. Basically I annihilated the cult using a type-3t bomb. Survivors were picked off by z-15.
The rate of undesirable cults forming has been increasing. When the supposed god of your religion is missing, it's a bit hard to keep faith.
I'm going on that pilgrimage I mentioned for the next week. When I come back, it'll be for that damned ritual.
Day 34:
I postponed it for long enough. I guess it had to happen at some point. Let me review the steps;
1. Tie thread to myself securely. Most important part.
2. Climb down the central shaft to the fortress ruins.
3. Navigate my way to the mana spire.
4. Consume one of its fruits.
5. Leave by retracing my steps. If I become unable to move, tug on the thread twice to get pulled up. This is the best outcome.
Day 36:
She returned. fuuuuuuuuuuck my life is going to get so much worse. Managing people who follow a religion because they liked what they were told is a lot easier than managing a bunch of zealots who basically saw god descend ascending upon them and draw dragon bones from a lake of blood.
Worst of all, I didn't get mana sickness at all. If anything, I became a mana battery. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this much mana?
Day 39:
I think I understand why my sisters all love Vildra. She shows genuine interest in what we did, provides nice feedback, and listens to our worries. She's even conscious of our emotions and feelings, which is really impressive considering we're centipedes and she's a dragon.
Of course, mother was super angry at first, with the whole "disappear for 100 years without warning" thing. But compared to the last time she was angry at someone, this was more of a "I got worried you fucker" kind of angry. After that there was a whole heartwarming hug scene. (a bit awkward due to over 2000 legs poking everywhere, but we don't mind)
Now, there are a few things about Vildra that I don't fully agree with. The first is that she's a fucking cannibal. She killed the copycat with no mercy, butchered it like livestock, and ate it with us as a "homecoming feast".
The second is lack of ego. She's so powerful that even dragons start cults in her name. Yet she has no self-confidence, no pride, no grandiosity. For fuck sake you're seen as a god, start acting like one!
Who am I kidding. Real gods don't exist, so there's no "acting like a god".
Day 47:
where the fuck did she get angel eyes? What the fuck is an angel? Who the fuck are these 'suitors' flying right outside? why did vildra threaten to kill them? Since when did we have a fucking anti-magic laser? i'm so confused.
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17th of Ay, 224 years since megados eruption
do I have to reintroduce myself? Hello, I'm Vildra Miltos, Dragon Lord and apparently god? I don't know religions are weird. I finally got a new book to use as a diary, since the last one was kind of ruined by that weirdo. She was totally insane, missing half her memories, and thought she was me for some reason.
Anyways, I'm back after 100 years! I apparently missed a lot of stuff, but I don't really care. Aesmo gave me the summary of stuff that happened that directly affects me.
...
Nothing really. I mean there were a few things that indirectly affect me, usually by affecting the Esmos. But nothing specifically affecting me. Aesmo telling every visitor to fuck off turned out to be very effective.
Now as to what I was doing for the last 100 years... that's classified information. Just know that my left eye is fucked up right now, I have the corpse of an angel beneath my bed, and I found out some of the spells that I should know. And also learned a few that I shouldn't know.
Luckily, I'm not being monitored by the council, so my actions the past 2 weeks should remain under their radar. Well, except the death laser I shot at an idiot who wanted to marry me. To be honest, there were 3 layers of warnings telling them that I'd kill them if they continued.
Now, some important-for-me news, in no particular order;
1. I'm apparently the god of a religion? Not uncommon for a dragon to be seen as a god, but usually it's just small cults. Not a whole empire-wide religion. Ultimately though, it doesn't affect me. I'll just ignore it.
2. There's a 'dragon slayer' going around killing dragons. Good for them.
3. The price of metal has stabilized, so I'll go sell the stuff we stored.
4. Some young prince tried to take over my mountain, got hit by a laser. No one else made the same mistake since.
5. Aunt Holly poisoned a whole continent. Consequentially a war started, blah blah blah, she got killed, council got angry because population of dragon is decreasing even faster. Other dragons got angry because some idiot said dragons should all die, and that the age of dragons needs to end. Long story short, there's now 2 major factions arguing about whether or not dragons should just die out or not.
I'm annoyed, as this was part of the reason why I went down to mine to begin with. Well, I still don't care. It's not like every dragon has to die.
4th of Az, 224 years since megados eruption
I barely had time, but I managed to prepare everything for hibernation. I'm sure when I wake up, the council will hound me for answers. Well, I'll just show them the angel corpse. I still need to hear what Aesmo did for the past 100 years. And also find out how she lived for so long.