Dragon's Tale 89

Suddenly sprouting a fresh layer of scales all over my body was a supremely uncomfortable sensation, with a weird itch. Though, it was not as uncomfortable as suddenly having two brand new limbs on my back. 

Interestingly, going through such a huge transformation was much less painful than I would have expected. All I felt was a weird itch, though my new ally’s a panicked attitude as she walked around me, doing her best to cast a diagnostic spell — only to be rebuffed by the magic circling under my new scales. 

And the scales weren’t the full extent of my transformation. In my chest, my core was getting warmer and warmer with each second, pumping more magic to my body than I ever thought to be possible, completely overshadowing my previous capacity — which was incredible as not only I was a Sorcerer, but also I was one of the stronger sorcerers in terms of magical power. 

Yet, I didn’t dare to cast a spell to test my newly acquired abilities, because I still remembered the way my magic had been working the last time I had gone through such transformation, with little to no control. 

I had a feeling that my current situation would be even worse.

Then, I grabbed the nearest wall to stand up, only for my hand — claw — to go through the wall, showing that it wasn’t only my magical abilities I had to struggle to control. 

“H-how are you still alive?” my newest ally stammered again, further highlighting the extraordinary nature of my new status. 

“Why?” I said as I walked back and forth, leaving a great number of footprints on the floor as I did so, my tongue feeling weird in my mouth as I spoke. “I know that I’m not supposed to survive after absorbing a dragon heart, but considering I had managed to do it once, is it really that surprising that I’m still alive?” 

“You don’t even realize what just happened!” she answered, her beautiful face contorted in abject shock, though it was the small, hysterical chuckle that escaped her lips that showed me the true extent of her shock. 

“Not particularly, no,” I answered, ignoring the unfamiliar sensation of a different-shaped tongue moving in my mouth. “I can’t say I’m an expert in dragon hearts,” I said, then looked down. “Honestly, before now, I didn’t even realize just how accurate their naming was.” 

Her giggle hardly helped me to feel comfortable about her state of mind, suggesting that she might slip away to hysteria. I would have slapped her to distract her from her hysteria if it wasn’t for my out-of-control strength, making it likely that such an action would likely kill her. 

And my newest claws, sharp enough to cut through a wall, were hardly something that made it easier. 

“Tell me then?” I prompted instead. 

“You survived a complete merging,” she said. 

“And that’s unlikely, how?” I asked. 

She sighed before starting to speak, though I didn’t push her about the delay despite being in the center of the enemy base. Not only my physical state was rather hard to conceal, but also I couldn’t even walk without creating a commotion. Since I needed to get a minimal handle on my power before escaping, a couple minutes of delay was not the biggest inconvenience. 

“First of all, a resonance is the precursor to a merging, which is a complete melding of two pieces of dragon heart, creating a bigger and stronger one in the process, usually stronger than the sum of the earlier pieces.” 

“And that’s a problem, how? Isn’t it better to have a stronger one?” 

“Because, such merging only happens in an explosive way. The kind that erases the towns off the map, and that’s on the condition that the merging is successful.” 

“And how about the unsuccessful ones.” 

“There’s a story about that back in my country. A usurper of the throne dared to force one to prove his heavenly mantle, and he decided to do so on the top of a holy mountain, hoping that being closer to the heavens would accelerate it?” 

“And I’m guessing the mountain didn’t survive unscathed.” 

“You could say that,” she said. “Considering it is the location of the largest lake in my country.” 

 “Understood,” I said, unable to suppress a chill. “But why are they experimenting with them in the middle of their estate if it’s so dangerous.” 

“Because resonance is rare, and not something you can force. There needs to be a natural connection, which, considering the rarity of such an event, was not likely. Even if you collect all dragon hearts in the world in a room, I doubt that there would be more than a handful of natural resonance events.” 

“That rare, huh,” I murmured, once again unable to believe my luck.

“Yes, it was your misfortune that triggered it, but it was your fortune that allowed you to survive,” she answered, her hysteria slowly disappearing as she spoke, getting a hang of her nerves. I could still see a manic glint in her gaze, suggesting she was still feeling shocked, but she was able to suppress it sufficiently. 

Which was all I could expect. 

“How big was the initial piece of crystal you absorbed for it to dominate and absorb such a big piece of dragon heart?” she said curiously. I raised my hand and made a gesture. 

Only for her shock to return to the surface. “Impossible,” she gasped. 

“More impossible than not destroying the outskirts of Rome in a magical accident?” I asked. 

“Yes,” she answered immediately. “In a resonance, it’s impossible for a weaker piece to absorb a stronger one.” 

“How do you know that? You just told me that it’s rare in the first place. Maybe it was an exception,” I said, not feeling particularly convinced of her statement. 

“We don’t have time for a month-long lecture, but believe me, it’s impossible for a natural resonance to work like that.” 

“How about an artificial one, then?” I asked. “Maybe my lightning spells triggered something.” 

“That’s even more unlikely,” she answered. “Triggering an artificial resonance requires decades of careful work to even have a hint of success, and trying to compress it further, even onto years…”  

“Turns mountains into lakes,” I completed her sentence. 

“Exactly!” 

Though, as we talked, I could see her shock slowly getting under control. “Anyway, I’m sure it’s not going to be the only time we discuss my impossible survival,” I said, interrupting her track of thought. “Let’s focus on the more important challenge. You need to find a way to hide me if we want to escape successfully.” 

“And do you think we can still escape after all this commotion?” she asked. “They’ll scour the whole of Italy just to discover us even if we can get out of the Estate in the first place.” 

“Maybe, I already have a ship ready and waiting for us at the docks. I could signal them to leave early, and we can meet with them in the sea. As long as we can get out of the estate and arrange a proper distraction to them…” 

“We can’t avoid them following you,” she said with a sigh. “After resonance, you’re radiating a very distinct aura, and you’ll radiate it until you can get it under control, which is hardly something that could be achieved easily.” 

I frowned a bit. “Can’t you use a spell to conceal it?” I asked. 

“Maybe for a few hours, but that would be my limit,” she answered. “Anything more, and I would be too drained to move, let alone cast anything.” 

It seemed a bit weak to me. I wondered whether her reserves were too low, or I had a general misunderstanding about the potential of the other sorcerers due to my own warped nature. Not that it mattered at the moment. Not like I had another sorcerer helper to replace her. 

“How about using a dragon heart as a battery, then?” I said as I pointed at the glowing crystals that littered the room. 

“That’s even more impossible,” she said as she looked at them. “By using them, they would radiate an aura similar to what you’re radiating in the first place, making it a moot point.” 

“Oh, really,” I said as I looked at the crystals, a plan forming in my mind. “And, can you trigger them so that they radiate that power constantly, for a few hours?” 

“That’s much easier,” she said. “Why?” 

“I was thinking of decoys,” I said. “There’s a group of nobles in the estate, and it’s almost time for them to leave the estate. If you can suppress my aura for an hour, we could slip some of the dragon hearts to them and spread the rest around the city. The chaos in such an important location would give us the opportunity to disappear.” 

I glanced at the many Patrician weapons spread around the city, most I failed to recognize. “And, imagine the intensity of the chaos if along with some dragon hearts, more than a dozen lost Patrician weapons suddenly appeared in the city. Wouldn’t the chaos it created be just enough for us to slip out.” Technically, I didn’t know whether all those weapons actually belonged to Patrician families, that was just my assumption after recognizing the Spear of Scipio. 

I didn’t even know the source of the other two weapons that I managed to summon, the sword and the bow, let alone others. 

But I doubted the greedy nobles of Rome would care about their origin compared to the power they represented. Giving such a treasure up was not exactly easy, but it was certainly better than dying for them. 

“Then, how are we going to get onto the ship if it leaves the docks?” she asked. 

I smirked. “How well you can swim?”