Ep 14. Pay Your Respects. (9)
“…Lord? Lord Serenis? Hello?”
“Although we can’t bury them, we’ll always remember their sacrifice in our hearts. May they find eternal peace in…”
“…Father, that’s not funny.”
Despite his evident joking, Bruton’s hand was hovering over the unconscious boy’s chest, even in this moment. The elder dragon was channeling copious amounts of mana into the dragonlord, restoring what he could. But…
‘The reserve’s been severely damaged. The spell drained their mana well over the reserve’s limits…’
Mana was an intangible form of energy scattered throughout the world. One could find it in the smallest of ponds, the largest of trees, even in the air and soil. And living beings were no exception.
Though a myriad of methods were out there, the most conventional way to gain mana was simply through breathing and consuming food. The restored mana is then safely contained within the mana reserve within one’s heart, with any excess being cycled out through breathing.
However, Serenis’ body was failing at the ‘containing’ part. Despite Bruton’s efforts to refill the dragonlord’s empty reserves, what mana was channeled in continued to leak out uncontrollably; it was no different than attempting to fill a shattered pot. Symptoms of mana depletion were often temporary, but that was not the case when the individual’s reserve was practically destroyed like this.
For now, Bruton was able to delay the repercussions. But as soon as he stopped the channelling, Serenis’ reserve would wither completely; never again would the dragonlord be able to use any form of magic. Worse, there was no telling what damage it would bring to the physical body without any mana circulating it whatsoever.
‘But we don’t have anyone that could treat this here. We…hm?’
From the corners of his eyes, Bruton could notice Raizel rising up to her feet. A horrifying screeching noise echoed out of her arm.
The bones that she’d ripped out of her arm were growing back from within. Ilias couldn’t help but frown at the sight.
“Ugh…Raizel, what are you…you can grow your own bones?”
“Of course I can.”
“What do you mean ‘of course’?! Bones aren’t kelp, they don’t just grow back like that!”
“Are you stupid?”
“What?”
“What’s my affinity?”
“?...Steel.”
“What’s my bone made of?”
“Steel…oh.”
Ilias belatedly realized what Raizel was doing. Her bone wasn’t ‘growing’ per say; the steel dragon was simply making new ones through her own affinity’s magic.
“Wait…if you could grow your bones back like that, why didn’t you just do that when I broke your wrist? Now that I think about it, couldn’t you have just made the metal with magic instead of ripping your bones out?”
Raizel made a disgusted expression as she shook her arm in front of Ilias, answering through gritted teeth.
“First of all, fixing myself this way hurts like a bitch.”
“…Right. Sorry.”
“Second of all, you know how slow my spells are. I didn’t have time to lounge around like you.”
“…Sorry.”
By the virtue of her affinity, combined with her lack of reliance on magic, Raizel’s spell speed was abysmally slow compared to the average; she simply didn’t have the luxury of time in the case with saving Serenis.
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After making sure that her arm was functioning again, Raizel temporarily closed the wound she’d ripped open with heaps of metal. It wasn’t exactly an ideal treatment, but it’d do for now; there were more pressing matters at hand.
The steel dragon scanned the huge, circular chamber they’d entered.
The path they’d come through was now completely blocked with heaps of the collapsed ice. She could see several other paths leading to this very chamber, though she figured none of them were exits, but instead similar paths ridden with traps and ill intent. The only ‘exit’ was likely supposed to be through the ceiling.
Coming through the ceiling was light – unmistakable sunlight. While it was far too high to reach without flying, it would definitely lead them back outside.
She then lowered her gaze, focusing in on the object before her.
A blue orb was levitating at her chest level at the centre of the room. It continuously emitted a chilling aura, though it did little to bother the metal dragon. It was undoubtedly the source of the pit’s unnatural cold, and the object that supplied mana to all the inexplicable traps and barriers. There was no way any of those were natural phenomena.
“…This must be what we’ve been looking for then.”
Raizel grasped it without a moment’s hesitation. She couldn’t feel anything special from the orb other than the overwhelming amount of mana resonating from it; even though there were other objects that could resonate copious amounts of mana, this orb far surpassed the levels of mana-containing objects.
She slowly brought it over towards the rest of the group. Ilias shifted her gaze from her father to Raizel as the steel dragon approached them.
“Wait…what is that?”
“Probably the kid’s heart.”
“Huh?”
“That’s what they came here to find, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but I mean…that blue orb is a heart? Shouldn’t it be like, an organ?”
“Hell if I know. Probably some lord-thing again.”
Raizel then looked towards Bruton, who was still trying to salvage the dragonlord’s broken reserve.
“Hey, old man. What’s wrong with ‘em? Is he gonna get up or not?”
“…Their reserve’s been broken. He’ll come to eventually, but…their reserve won’t remain intact. There’s no telling what it’ll do to their body.”
“If this is a heart, then it could fix that, right?”
Bruton widened his eyes at the question.
Raizel was right. Mana reserves were located within the heart. A reserve’s destruction couldn’t be reversed, but if one were to supposedly attain a new heart altogether…
“It…could work.”
“Better than ‘won’t work’.”
The steel dragon exchanged glances between the orb she was holding, and the boy lying down below.
‘…Do I just shove it down their throat or something? It’s a little big for that though.’
Raizel quizzically lowered the orb, letting it make contact with the dragonlord. Since it’s theirs to begin with, maybe it’ll just sink right in or something.
The orb softly began to glow as it touched the human boy. The light became gradually brighter until it was nearly blinding.
“Ugh…why does everything in this place have to glow?!”
No one had an answer to that. Ilias merely had a comment that wasn’t spoken out loud.
‘…And something usually goes wrong afterwards too.'
Soon, a surge of mana knocked the three dragons away, sending them flying into the chamber’s walls. Only Serenis remained where they’d been with the gleaming orb, now emitting a blinding radiance that filled the chamber.
“Raizel, can you see anything?!”
“What makes you think I can see anything?!”
“I don’t know, you’re metal! Doesn’t light reflect right off of your eyes or something?!”
‘Daughter, I don’t think that’s how it works…’
Bruton bit his lips as he struggled to keep his eyes open. The burst of light that illuminated the entire chamber refused to fade, and none of them could tell what was happening to Serenis.
Truth be told, Bruton wasn’t too fond of the strange little human boy that had barged into their homes, declared himself their lord, and went about thrashing an ancient relic that elders had spoken never to go near. But at the same time…
‘…I don’t feel inclined to hate them.’
It wasn’t that Bruton trusted every word that came out of Serenis; he’d even wondered if the boy was trying to awaken the tyrant dragon his elders had spoken of. Bruton just found it strangely difficult to distrust or dislike the self-proclaimed dragonlord – especially after what they’d done to stop the collapse from reaching the two girls.
Meanwhile, a kindred warmth was coursing through Serenis’ body. The orb really did begin to sink into the dragonlord’s chest as a distant voice echoed within her ears.
- ‘Mother, look! I can roast meat by myself now!’
Even while unconscious, a genuine smile curved the dragonlord’s lips.
- ‘One day, I’ll become a great lord. When that day comes, you’ll have nothing to do but sit back and watch me lead our brethren, mother! It won’t be long!’
‘If only I was there to see it.’
Only the first lord’s hearts could survive the test of time. Any other heart would eventually wither away, regardless of its owner’s former strength. As this heart had persisted through the centuries, it had to be her own.
This orb was her former heart.
And yet, at the same time it wasn’t.
When Serenis headed to the summit with her dragonkin, a single elder had remained at the nests to take care of the eggs and the newborn that were left behind.
Serenis had hoped that her heart would be in his possession. That he would have retrieved her body, and inherited her heart. She had hoped and hoped that he would still be alive to welcome her return.
She desperately wanted to believe in such a future – that the frozen corpse couldn’t possibly be who she thought it was. She’d blinded her own eyes and suppressed her own doubts, but no longer could she do so as the orb began to flood her body with a gentle, longing warmth.
“…Vulka.”
As she came to, the dragonlord softly whispered her son’s name.