Chapter 65: Vault of the Fire Queen

Minx was the first one who has recovered her ability to walk and that was only one day later. Standing up on all fours, Minx first went to check on the wolf. The wolf was able to slightly move his limbs but he was not strong enough to stand up.

The moment Minx got close to the wolf, it surprised Minx by lounging towards her with a crazed look in it’s eyes.

“You must be hungry.. Minx will find something to eat.” Said Minx as she easily avoided the wolf’s attack. She then immediately started heading back the same way they came in search of any magic beast that might have remained in the area. Her body was not completely recovered, but her mana was, so unless she got unlucky and stumbled upon a really strong beast, she figured it should be fine.

Minx didn’t have to walk long before she reached a few dead beasts laying on the ground. They were victims of the other beasts stampede, magic beasts that were weaker and couldn’t run fast enough to save themselves.

A few minutes later, Minx returned to the wolf carrying a dead beast in her mouth. As she dropped the beast in front of the wolf, it didn’t waste any time before plunging it’s teeth in the dead beast’s skin and starting to consume it.

The same thing kept repeating, with Minx feeding more and more beasts to the black wolf, but the recovery was very slow. When Edward asked Fenrir about it, she told him that, since the beasts have been dead for quite a while, there was barely any life force left inside them to be devoured by the wolf.

It took another half a day until the wolf was able to stand up again. Once it could walk, it started hunting on it’s own. On the morning of the third day, the wolf has finally fed enough and Edward managed to regain control of his body.

Opening his eyes as his body transformed back into that of a human, Edward fell on his knees and started throwing up. Besides the powerful nausea that greeted him when he returned to the real world, there was also a very strong headache that accompanied it.

After throwing up the entire contents of his stomach, Edward decided to ask Fenrir about it since this has never happened before.

[Azure said to check your status tablet.]

<Name: Edward Black>
<Class: Beginner Water Mage>
<Sub-class: Shadow Walker>
<Sub-class: Night Hunter>
<Sub-class: Swordsman>
<Sub-class: Shape-Shifter(Unique)>
<Mana: 452/1356>
<Stamina: 801/801>
<Strength: 18.3>
<Dexterity: 18.9>
<Level: 8>
<Level Life Force: 1/450>
<Spells: Water Ball, Cost: 2 mana;
Water Blade, Cost 5 mana;
Water Bullet, Cost 2-5 mana;
Water Barrier, Cost 1-10 mana;
Water Whip, Cost 100 mana;
Water Platform, Cost 100 mana;
Water Vortex, Cost undefined;
Elemental shifting, Locked>
<Skills: Wolf Shift: 11 stamina/minute;>

“Huh? What happened to my mana?”

[A consequence of you using mana borrowed from the environment to cast a spell. You can think of it as mana poisoning. Mana in the environment is not as pure as the mana one stores inside their body. When you absorbed all that mana inside your body to summon Azure, all those impurities remained inside your body even after the mana was consumed. While it did increase your maximum mana, it also left you no choice but to have to get rid of all those impurities on your own. Until you do that, you will be able to store less mana than before.]

“I see.” Edward could understand the gist of it. Basically, a part of his mana tank was occupied by trash he would have to take out. Not putting to much thought into it, Edward turned towards Minx and rubbed her head affectionately.

“Thanks girl. I don’t know what will I ever do without you.” Minx didn’t reply and just enjoyed Edward’s touch with a pleased expression on her face.

Fixing his eyes at the center of the swamp, he said: “Fenrir, should I go and check it out or do I just retreat back to the city?”

[That’s up to you but I would very much like to see if my sister did indeed use her power to save that dragon.]

Edward nodded and rode on top of Minx back towards the center of the swamp. Since the wolf has taken him quite some distance away in it’s quest to look for food, the journey back took an entire hour even with Minx’s speed. The journey went smooth since they didn’t encounter a single beast on the way back, even the fog from before being completely gone now.

One hour later, Edward and Minx spotted a black dragon resting near an egg that was about the same size as it was. Finding the image weird, Edward asked: “It looks like Hel has indeed saved the dragon, but why is it so small?”. Edward always thought of dragons as huge mighty beasts, but seeing this one in front of him, he felt a bit disappointed since it looked like a slightly bigger lizard.

Since no answer came from Fenrir, Edward started slowly walking closer to the dragon and egg.

Flastrdra heard footsteps coming closer towards her and raised her head to peer in the direction the sound was coming from. Seeing a human, she immediately got on guard, but as her eyes landed on Minx, she eased up a little bit, guessing the identity of the newcomers.

Edward knew that the dragon must not have a good impression of humans, having been attacked by Eddena just a few days ago and asked Minx to stop a bit further away. Jumping down from Minx’s back, Edward looked into the dragon’s red eyes and said: “I bear no ill will. I’ve come to ask you if you are the dragon Ember has told us about.” Edward felt it was a stupid question, there being no other dragon around, but he wanted to make so conversation to lower the dragon’s guard a bit.

Flastrdra was not able to speak so, after staring at Edward for a good moment she just nodded in agreement. Edward smiled and said: “That’s good. I’m happy to see you have managed to recover. Can you speak?”

Seeing Flastrdra shake her head, Edward frowned slightly, feeling this would going to be troublesome if he could not at least communicate with it. Thinking for a moment, he asked: “Can you summon Ember back? I have something to ask him.”

The dragon once more shook it’s head and Fenrir’s voice came from Edward’s arm: [Azure said that she felt Ember burning his soul at the same time my sister used her powers.]

“Burning his soul? What is that?” asked Edward, already guessing it was nothing good.

[Burning one’s soul means exactly what you think it does. He’s dead.]

“Oh, I see.” Replied Edward before tuning towards the downcast looking Flastrdra and saying: “I’m sorry for you loss. I won’t bother you anymore and I’ll take my leave now.” Edward has already confirmed Hel has indeed saved the dragon, but since he couldn’t even speak to it, he had no reason to remain here anymore. The thought of attacking a dragon that has managed to scare away all the beasts inside the swamp didn’t even cross Edward’s mind, even if it looked a lot less imposing now.

Seeing Edward climb on top of Minx and starting to walk away, a trace of hesitation appeared in Flastrdra’s eyes. Looking briefly to the side, at her still unhatched egg, she steeled her heart and unfurled her wings. Taking flight, she flew right in front of Edward’s path and blocked his way.

It was Edward’s turn to get on guard, thinking the dragon might be trying to get revenge for Eddena’s attack on it and it’s egg.

“Is there anything you want?” asked Edward as his mana already started churning.

The dragon let out a few sounds that Edward couldn’t understand before biting into one of it’s front claws and raising it towards Edward. It was the best way she could think of to express herself.

‘Is this thing challenging me to a duel or something?’ Edward frowned, not understand if this was some sort of dragon hand sign or something else.

[I understand now.. Hehe, Hel really brought us a great gift this time.]

“Huh? What do you mean gift?” asked Edward, not understand what Fenrir was trying to say either.

[She’s trying to tell you she wants to become your beast companion.]

“For real?” asked Edward in excitement releasing the mana he was gathering just before. Having a dragon as a pet, how could he not be excited about it?

The dragon looked reluctant but in the end still nodded her head. It was not all the deal Ember has made in her name, it was also the fact that she was now weak and needed help if she wanted to survive. The humans who attacked her would for sure return soon and she couldn’t fight them off in her current condition. There was also the fact that she could not even carry her egg to leave anymore, the egg being about the same size as she was.

Edward got even more excited when Flastrdra confirmed it and jumped down from Minx’s back. Walking in front of the dragon, he raised his hand to touch the dragon’s head only for the dragon to recoil backward and look at him with apprehension in it’s eyes.

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Edward awkwardly scratched his head and said: “Sorry, I always wanted to touch a dragon. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

The dragon just nodded but didn’t move to close the distance between it and Edward.

Frowning slightly, Edward lifted his arm and asked: “Fenrir, how come it can’t speak? If it could summon a high spirit into the world for so long and even release all that fire mana, it would make sense for it to be able to speak. Even Minx can speak and she’s just about as strong as I am..”

[Hmm.. Maybe it is injured?] Fenrir has no answer either and could only speculate.

“Are you injured?” Edward decided to ask the dragon itself since it could obviously understand his words even if it couldn’t speak itself.

The dragon didn’t reply and just closed it’s eyes briefly. All of a sudden, two tablets materialized in front of it and floated towards Edward.

Edward picked them up in surprise and took a quick look at them.

<Name: Flastrdra>
<Race: Black Dragon>
<Age: 1624>
<Level 1>
<Class: Empress of Flames>
<Title: Queen of Darkinire (revoked)>
<Guild: N/A>
<Affiliation: Darkinire (revoked)>
<Crimes: Kidnapping, Murder, Rebellion, Theft>

<Name: Flastrdra>
<Class: Empress of Flames>
<Mana: 10/10>
<Level: 1>
<Level Life Force: 1/500;>
<Spells: Fireball, locked;
Ignition, locked;
Fireproof , locked;
Firewall, Cost: locked;
Dragon Breath, locked;
Fire Familiar, locked;
Meteor Strike, locked;
Inferno, locked;
————>
<Skills: locked;>

Edward stood there stunned as he read through the two tablets in front of him. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but sadly the dragon had no way of answering any of them. After he was done reading through both of them, he pushed them back and asked: “Did you somehow lose your level?”. He found it strange that an over 1000 years old dragon with such a imposing class name and so many spells would only be level 1.

The dragon nodded as it absorbed the tablets inside it’s body again. As much as Edward wanted a dragon as a companion, he got the feeling this dragon might actually be more trouble than he has bargained for.

‘Kidnapping, Murder, Rebellion, Theft? What the hell did it do? How can a queen have so many crimes on her name?’ as much as he wanted to know the story behind it, with Ember dead he had no one he could ask about it.

Not able to come to a decision of whether he should accept the dragon as his beast companion, he decided to ask Fenrir for her opinion: “Fenrir, what do you think?”

[Complicated indeed. While her level is low, her knowledge would for sure be a great boon. That being said, this would also mean you will go against the dragon kingdom’s will…The decision is yours in the end.]

Edward sighed and looked for a moment at the dragon in front of him before saying: “Let’s not speak about you being level one, since you could level up with me, but those crimes…”

Flastrdra understood what Edward wanted to say. He would not accept her becoming his beast companion. She felt happy initially, albeit a little frustrated at having been rejected, but then her eyes landed on the egg not that far away and her emotions became even more complicated. She wanted to get rid of this deal, but this also meant she would have to find a way to protect her child on her own.

She was level one and couldn’t use any of her magic without a contracted spirit, making her even weaker than even a normal level one beast. She was also not able to even carry the egg somewhere else.

Looking at the back of the human in front of her, the thought of begging for his help passed briefly through her mind and this thought alone brought an even greater sense of shame.

The queen of the entire dragon race was thinking about begging a lowly human for help, a human that she, at the peak of her power, could crush with but a simple thought. She hated it, felt disgusted by it, but she also knew that he might even be her only chance of saving her child.

Swallowing her pride, she once again flew in front of Edward and bowed her head towards him. She couldn’t even speak to him, to explain, to ask him for his help. This was the only way she could think of to express her intention. Keeping the tears of shame that were threatening to escape her eyes, Flastrdra bent her body even lower, all the way until her neck touched the hard ground beneath.

Edward was surprised at the dragon’s behavior and asked with a frown: “What are you doing?”. He could understand she was begging for something, having seen something similar being done by Ember before.

Flastrdra lifted her head slowly and turned to look at her egg. Seeing the look in her eyes and the direction she was looking at, Edward finally understood what she wanted to say.

“Do you want me to help you protect your egg?” asked Edward with a sigh, hesitation obvious in his voice. He knew how precious a dragon’s entire body was and he could imagine that a dragon egg was even more so. He, of course thought of killing the dragon for the money when he found out it was very weak, but from Ember’s words, he also knew that there were more humans after it besides Eddena. He didn’t want to risk his life for some money he didn’t even really needed them.

But now, seeing the look in Flastrdra’s eyes, it reminded him of the look his mother would have whenever she would step in front of him to protect him from his drunk step-father’s beatings. He was just a brat, too weak to step up for himself or his mother. He could just cover in fear and watch as that man would…

Heaving a long sigh, Edward said: “Whatever, I’ll at least help you carry the egg away. Once we find somewhere you two can hide, we’ll both go on our own way.”

“The question is, where should we go…” he was only familiar with the area around the City of Ashes and had no idea where he could hide a dragon and it’s egg.

Flastrdra gave Edward a grateful look when she found out he would help her before letting out a small growl and pointing towards the west with her head.

Edward raised an eyebrow and asked: “Do you know of a place?”. Seeing that she nodded again, Edward turned towards Minx next.

“Girl, I’m sorry to ask this of you since you haven’t completely recovered yet, but you are probably the only one that can carry it…”

“Sure, Edward. Minx will help.” Replied Minx as she quickly increased her size to about double that of the egg. Comparing the two’s sizes, Edward sighed and muttered: “Let’s hope it’s not as heavy as it looks…”

Not willing to stay there any longer, afraid someone else would show up and complicate things, Edward summoned two water whips and tied them around the egg before using Minx’s tail as a ramp to drag it on her back. The egg weighted about the weight of two humans, which was not that bad.

Once he managed to climb with the egg on her back, he kept it from falling down using his water whips and instructed Minx to head west, in the direction Flastrdra showed them.

The group formed out of Edward, Minx and Flastrdra traveled for two days straight until they reached the place Flastrdra was planning to hide in. Edward was afraid someone else would show up so the group didn’t take any break at all the entire time.

Once Flastrdra signaled for Edward to stop, he looked around but couldn’t find any place they could hide in. There was a forest not that far towards the south-west, but around him there was only a simple flat plain.

Seeing that Edward was giving her a weird look, Flastrdra flew down from Minx’s back and, stunning Edward completely, fell straight through the ground in front of them.

Poking her head out of the ground, she motioned for Edward to follow him. Not willing to have Minx walk blindly inside, Edward stepped down and placed the egg on the ground before walking towards Flastrdra himself.

Touching the ground in front of him, he noticed that his hand went though it with no problem. He put his head inside next and found himself in front of a giant red door. Looking at the door’s top, he saw there was actually a plaque that didn’t look so old with words written on it.

<Vault of the Fire Queen>

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