Arson flew through the air at incredible speeds to keep up with his target. The golden drake in the distance could reach speeds even Arson struggled to keep up with, its wings flickering in and out of the visible spectrum because of how quickly the four appendages moved.
The creature was larger than most of the DragonKin Arson had fought while in the zone; a zone that pulled on time and space, creating an environment full of dangerous encounters, dedicated to warfare and chaos. Arson had been forced to fight many rare creatures since he entered the zone, and still hadn’t found an exit, and assumed he would find many more exotic beasts.
He withdrew Sky from his spacial inventory. The scythe vibrated excitedly in his hand as he stretched his arm out behind himself. He took aim and let mana lightning travel down the pole of the scythe, infusing his weapon’s blade with power.
I’m going to catch you, and when I do, it better be worth all the hassle of chasing you down.
Arson had killed the rest of the DragonKin’s flight, and the beast had taken off before Arson could obtain the bag that hung from the drake's neck. He’d barely managed to catch sight of the object hanging from the drake's body, but his Closed Eye Dominion didn’t allow Arson to miss anything within his power’s range.
Thus a day's long chase had begun. Arson had tried to strike down the creature many times, but each of those brief opportunities resulted in the drake increasing its speed momentarily, allowing for just enough distance between him and the DragonKin to force Arson to focus on flight only; the creature making itself appear as nothing more than a distant dot in his vision.
“Watch it, there is something up ahead,” said the weird talking woman on Arson’s wrist in warning. He didn’t know why the woman proceeded to help him without any sort of exchange of goods or payment of any sort, but Arson appreciated any and all help he received in the foreign environment.
It wasn’t until the woman had spoken that Arson noticed a large spherical structure in the distance. From what Arson could tell, a nest had been constructed in the distance made of large ivory bones from unknown creatures.
He was only able to tell that the structure was made of bones at a distance, once his Closed Eye Dominion’s range overlapped with the edges of the hive like nest. A series of seemingly randomly placed holes were being used by a countless number of drakes of various sizes to exit and enter the nest, and Arson would have stopped entirely if he wasn’t worried that he would lose sight of the drake he’d pursued for days.
“You're not going in there, right…?”
Arson ignored the watch woman and increased his speed to a dangerous level, moving fast enough that his eyes became useless to see from, everything around him becoming a mere blur of streaked color and light.
He closed his eyes to use his Closed Eye Dominion, and swung Sky with all his might, nearly shattering his arm with the effort. His body moved so fast through the air that the swing itself threatened to slow him down, but Arson forced his forward momentum to remain at its peak by flooding his body with even more mana.
He flew behind the Arc of Destructive Power as the crescent of mana lightning soared even faster than both him and the drake.
The creature slowed slightly, allowing the attack to soar over its head, but Arson hadn’t expected the strike to land regardless, bracing for impact.
Arson smashed bodily into the drake, its powerful form only dipping slightly in the air. Arson was forced to frantically grab at anything to stop himself from sliding off the back of the drake, latching onto a rear wing with his free hand before he put his weapon back inside the hidden space the watch woman called a spacial inventory.
Grasping another of the rear wings, Arson heard the creature growl in annoyance as it continued to fly as fast as it possibly could with Arson on its back, hindering its rear wings movements. Arson was surprised by how fast it moved, but didn’t care, he’d long had enough of this drake, and felt his rage and excitement bubble up at the thought of finally bringing it down.
Arson focused and started to channel rays of frost from both of his hands and watched the effects through his closed eyes. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but as he increased the flow of mana to the skill, a subtle cracking could be heard; the sound like that of melting icebergs as the drake's internal body temperature fought to keep its wings unfrozen.
Arson roared, wrapping his legs around the diving drake, that still rushed toward the nest in an attempt to anchor himself, and pulled with all his might. Twin snaps rang out and the drake’s cry of pain told Arson that the drake wouldn’t be able to stay adrift, the pair immediately pulled into a spiraling nose dive.
Not wanting to give the drake any chance to escape, Arson climbed the drake. His hands clamped down on the drake’s primary set of wings and Arson once more began to channel his ray of frost skill through both hands; the drake beginning to thrash about wildly under the duress of having its limbs frozen off.
“Incoming!”
Arson barely had a chance to look up before he and the drake plummeted into the top of the nest. The roars and growls of numerous DragonKin buffeting Arson from all sides. Darkness closed in on all sides of him, but Arson remained unaffected as he and the drake fell through a large tunnel. His eyes were still closed giving him an alarming view of what was all around him, as well as what was now pursuing him.
That ain't good…
Apparently Arson’s entry into the nest hadn’t gone unnoticed to any degree, and now he was drawing the attention of a large portion of the nest with each tunnel he fell past.
The thrashing drake beneath him ended up colliding with the tunnel wall, shattering its now frozen wings, all while smashing Arson against many walls that lined the interior of the tunnel.
If it wasn’t for his Closed Eye Dominion he wouldn’t know what direction was up, but regardless was unable to reach for the bag at the base of the drake's neck. He tried his best to climb further up the creature, and even felt his fingertips brush against the leather like material of the strap, only for the end over end aerial roll he and the drake were forced into to end with Arson being slammed perfectly on his back, half way into one of the side tunnels.
Arson’s shirt caught on the bone that the entire nest was made of, causing his entire body to bend backward, snapping his spine as the drake continued to fall through the tunnel they’d originally entered; the weight of the creature rolling him backward forcibly as it fell, leaving him dangling half in a side tunnel and half flailing upside down.
Arson at first tried to pull himself up, but then dozens of drakes entered the edges of his Closed eye Dominion all at once farther up the tunnel where he’d just been. He cursed and pushed off the corner of the side tunnel he dangled from; once more falling down the main tunnel. He couldn’t feel his legs at first until his spine snapped back into place, and the moment he regained sensation the roars from above intensified. Hearing the chorus of angry drakes racing after a potential food source, he nearly decided to leave, but banished the thought from his mind.
The exit was above where all the drakes were coming from, and he was so close to retrieving the bag around the drake’s neck. He couldn’t tell why his mind was so fixated on getting the bag, but couldn’t think of anything else since he’d first seen it within his Closed Eye Dominion, almost as if his every sense rang with desire for whatever the bag held. Similar to when his body hungered for water or sustenance, he felt he now needed that bag.
His golden white aura flowed free of his body lighting the tunnel as he flew, pushing down further and further into the depths of the nest with an ever increasing speed. He hadn’t been stuck on the edge of the side tunnel for but a moment or two at best, yet the distance between him and his target had widened greatly, showing Arson exactly how fast the drake’s original velocity had been.
Arson seemed to create a considerable gap between the flood of drakes behind him, and the thrum of power he felt he rushed toward. The sound of roars and growls grew softer behind him, but more intense before him, making him worry for his life, not knowing what lay ahead.
The watch did say you can regenerate quickly, but I doubt that that includes being eaten piece by piece Arson… Yet even this thought wasn’t enough to stop him from pushing onward.
He accelerated further, and after a few more moments Arson arrived in a large den. He opened his eyes to take in the sight of the area he’d flown into and gasped.
Within the large area was hundreds of different types of dragons. All the various dragons flew in and out of this main area through hundreds of holes that led into the cavernous space.
The area was well lit by an incredible amount of mana stones that covered every inch of the ceiling. The light illuminated everything. The rivers of crystal clear waters that rushed into the den from multiple directions. The uncountable number of dragon species. As well as the largest dragon Arson had ever seen.
The dragon that slept in the center of the space made mountains look small. The creature slept upon innumerable treasures that all glittered and emanated with power. Arson became more aware of how immense and overwhelming that power was the more he lowered through the air. A dense aura of pressure making it hard for his mind to function properly made him less eager to approach the mountain of wealth before himself; not that he was excited to move any closer to the dragon the size of a mountain range, though tempted.
“Down there to your left,” came from Arson’s watch and Arson had to force himself to look away from the sight before himself. After a slight scan of the area, he found the body of the golden drake.
The beast hadn’t even been there for but a hand full of moments and was already being pecked at by smaller drakes. Arson caught sight of a drake even trying to pull the strap of the bag around his target's neck and increased his downward speed suddenly enraged.
He splashed down into the shallow edge of one of the many rivers that flowed through the den and began to stomp ungracefully over to where the drake's body lay half submerged in the waters there.
His sloshing and noise did nothing to scare off the DragonKin devouring the body of their brethren so Arson chose another tactic to get his desired result.
“Have it your way then…." he said to himself raising both hands and beginning to fire twin rays of frost. Every beast struck by the condensed beams of cold scattered or was instantly frozen, as many of their smaller forms didn’t have the same level of resistance as the larger beasts, some as small as a child’s hand by comparison to their larger brethren.
Finally Arson swatted away the slightly larger drake that flapped wildly to pull away the bag around his target's neck with a powerful backhand that sent the creature fluttering off, leaving Arson to pull the bag free himself.
It took Arson a while to free the bag from the drake's form, Arson having to turn the beast over multiple times to free the strap of the bag from underneath its considerable weight, but eventually it came free and Arson straightened with his prize in his hands.
It was as if a fog cleared from Arson’s mind and he could think straight once more, only after he had retrieved the item now in his hands. A surprising prompt following his capture of the item.
*Treasury Receptacle of Lost Monarchs: This bag once held by the primary messenger of a now forgotten series of kingdoms holds a sanctum of powerful treasures only receivable through sacrifice.
Would you like to merge this spacial treasure with that of your own? Yes/No?*
“Wait Arson let’s think about this for a second it seems danger—“
Ignoring his watch, Arson immediately clicked yes, not understanding the prompt in the slightest. Not even taking a single glance at the secondary prompt warning him against the loss of his spacial artifact, or the warning that entailed that the relics within may be linked to the very trial he now found himself traveling in, Arson waited to see what would happen.
“Son of the maiden’s... holy sparks, you dirty son of a demon!”
Arson’s watch continued to curse at him, and he lifted his wrist to watch the face made of stars scrunch in seeming discomfort of whatever process was being done. His eyes went wide as the bag he held dematerialized before he even got a chance to look inside it. The bag dissolving into a stream of golden light that entered into his watch as if it never existed.
*Fusion of spacial dimensions now beginning, rate of potential failure: 50/50%… Process now beginning.*
Hmm, maybe I should have read the rest of those prompts… A sudden feeling of alarm filled him, and Arson worried for the woman in the watch. Without her, he wouldn’t even know his own name. As the days before his hunt for the golden drakes treasure had been filled with a haze of fighting giants, and being hunted by packs of flying beasts.
Every day he woke was another day filled with more fighting and less of the memories that told him who he was, remaking him anew with each loss. Yet the woman he now felt absolute dread over losing suddenly, had been there every step of the way to help him, guiding him back toward his goals.
Please, maiden, let this work. I need her to be okay so that she can help me exit this trial and return to my life and loved ones.
The process took a while, and by the time it was done Arson’s brows were raised at the sight of the woman’s face changing between pain, pleasure and outright confusion in a sporadic loop that made him want to both laugh and for a plethora of reasons ask the woman if she was okay.
*Fusion Process Successful: Secret Treasury portal now accessible through Overlay inventory tab.*
“Wow, that was a lot, I’m going to need you to talk to me first before you download a building into the middle of my sparking runic systems next time please and thank you!”
He simply nodded and smiled, glad that whatever process had just been completed, hadn’t ended with complete and utter ruin.
He began to look around at his surroundings once more before he heard a sound that made him look up. It seemed that the drake colony had been stirred into madness above him, and he hadn’t gotten lucky by entering the den with the giant dragon, but instead had only been given a brief respite from the swarm of DragonKin that now burst into the den like a hive of angry mana bees.
“Think I’m going to run now,” said Arson, his eyes widening at the sight of hundreds, if not a thousand or more, of various sized drakes racing toward him.
“You Think!”