Chapter 22: the church

  “That was frankly terrifying.” Carmine said, walking beside me. The streets of the mega-city are surprisingly empty. You would expect a city with over a billion people living here would have the streets packed day and night, but no. Most who travel through the city do so with their vehicles through these flying roads. Some ride these hoverboards that use electricity instead of magic to fly, but have invisible magic guards to keep them falling while moving so fast, and others ride what can only be described as a motorcycle wearing a suit of armor. Beefy things with horizontal wheel-things that emit the energy to move. We, however, do not use any of those. We use the sidewalk. And I know I said that the sidewalks aren't packed but they still have a lot of people.

  “Absolutely horrifying.” Willow confirmed with a solemn nod.

  “I do not understand how you accomplished this.” Grante agrees, walking to the other side of me. Dairen had already left, something about his wife I think.

  “How did you manage to do that?” Carmine questions me, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at me. What might they be talking about? I managed to sell my root.

  “I'm good with numbers, plus I have the associated skill and title.” I shrug.

  “That makes some sense, but still, 8 TIMES?! HOW?” Willow practically shouts.

  “I'm really good with numbers.” I say sagely, stroking my metaphorical beard with a shit-eating grin plastered on my face. In a pouch slung around my neck is 400 gold coins, now 399 + 5 silver after paying the entrance fee. I sold the root to an alchemist specializing in healing potions and needed some resources. Not only did I come at the right time, but I had a good quality root.

  “That poor man was crying when we left.” Carmine points out, facepalming.

  “Hey, he didn't have to say yes.” I point out. “Anyway, where are we going?”

  “There's a few solid space mages on the far side of the city, so one may be able to help you.” Willow explains. “ If you're transporting 3 people, you'll want a peak tier 2 or mid tier 3. With what you got from the root it won't be too hard.”

  “Thanks for all of this. It means a lot…”

  “Eh, enough of the mushy shit, keep your head up!” Carmine gives my arm a punch with a grin, then winces. “Ow, that felt like punching metal!”

  “My durability is high.”

  “My strength stat is 50.”

  “So is my durability.”

  “Aren't you level 6?” Grante butts in.

  “Yes?” I answer, confused. I feel misinformed here. Why are they looking at me weird?”

  “Abhor, how can you have one of your stats maxed out at level 6?” Carmine asks skeptically. “Actually, how do you have a level when you aren't fully grown?”

  “Well, A few reasons. What first, stats or levels?” I stop and sit on a big bench-thing designed for dragons. there are lots of these on the roads in the residential area, along with the normal human benches.

  “Start with the stats.” Grante says, sitting down beside me as Willow takes the other side. Carmine flops down on her back.

  “Well, I have a stat that I can put into other stats called essence.” I say honestly. In hindsight, I don't know why I was so truthful to them. It wasn't a smart thing to do. But I'm not a smart person, so whatever.

  “But… essence is only for paladins and divine beings, and that usually comes at the cost of losing your ability to use mana.” Willow points out.

  “Weird. I can use mana just fine, though I'm not particularly good at it.” I shrug.

  “There are a lot of weird things about you, Abhor.” Grante comments.

  “And what about the fact you can level?” Carmine asks. Of the three of them, Grante looks mildly interested, Willow looks like she is questioning her existence and Carmine looks disbelieving and skeptical.

  “Well… it was during a fight.” I say.

  “A fight? Against who?” Grante asks, suddenly far more interested.

  “Humans. Some Had these mech things, and one of them was almost level 150, but I didn't fight him.”

  “Mech things…” Grante considers for a moment.

  “So how does this relate to you unlocking leveling capabilities?”

  “Well, while I was fighting a special mech with springy legs, I heard something speaking. Talking about initializing and stuff.”

  “That's what you hear when your leveling unlocks on your 18th.” Carmine comments.

  “Yeah, Snowstorm said the same thing a few days ago when we chatted about it. A skill unlocked too, my breath attack. While it happened I felt my energy moving within myself, condensing. The system talked about it as a soul core.” I raise my arm to show the stone on the back of my left talon. All three of them freeze at once. They just stare at the stone like it's something utterly impossible.

  “...What?” I hesitate to say.

  “...The fuck… are you?” Carmine says eventually.

  <{(0)}>

  The interrogation began immediately. I don't mean an actual official interrogation, more of an unofficial thing consisting of them all questioning me until my brain bled. Grante mostly asked about the battle and how I acted. He seemed somewhat pleased by my battle decision making, which is a new feeling. Carmine wanted to know about my skills and things. I didn't tell her that I could buy skills, but I did talk about essence and my species and such.

  “Juvenile time dragon? Never heard of it.” Grante says. “Mutants usually have less savory and more creative names. That name sounds more…”

  “Basic.” Carmine finishes.

  “Is that a jab at me?” I frown.

  “I was going to say primal.” Grante finishes before Carmine can retort.

  “I feel that too.” Willow nods. “Like the basest form of it. ALmost as if the ten clans are all the current versions of a new product, and your species is the most pure version of a species. Though, why are we not talking about the fucking time breath?”

  “What about it?” I ask, confused. “Is it something special?”

  “The time affinity ain't a dime a dozen. Its in the top 3 rarest affinities right beside creation and destruction. Not the most powerful, but definitely the most difficult and rare.” Carmine explains. “To have shit like that… you're just a living cheat skill.”

  “Well, it's not like I'm strong or anything.” I say, pinching the membranes on m cheek as I think.

  “I have an idea.” Willow raises a claw and a stone sphere the size of my head appears in her talon. “Shoot this.”

  “Oh, alright, but shouldn't we j-” She throws it straight up into the air. Dammit, Go time attack!

  Breath of time

  However, before the beam even hits, another sphere appears on the ground. The light purple beam slams into the first sphere and vanishes.

  I Look down at the stone sphere. I climb up off my seat to make my way over to the object. I reach out and pick it up.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “It reappeared before I hit it…”

  “I thought it reappears after, not before.” Carmine says, hopping off of Willow's back and making her way over to me.

  “Normally, yes. This is new…”

  “Bloody unpredictable.” Carmine scratches the back of her head and frowns. Grante nods and adds his 2 cents “But unpredictable is useful in a fight when its your opponent who can't predict it. Is there anything you can think of to predict which type it is, or better yet, influence it? You wouldn't need someone to bring you to your destination on time if you just blasted yourself to the past and got there early.”

  “Before now I didn't even know it could do that. Lets try again.”

  Nods all around and one blasted orb later, we all sit in a circle on the grass (though the human is standing) as nothing appears again.

  “Is it go- oh shit!” Carmine jumps out of the way as a big sphere nearly crushes her head in as it appears from nowhere. She lands on the grass with a thud and dusts herself off before standing up. “I repeat, bloody unpredictable.”

  “Whoops…” I look away, embarrassed. If it had hurt her I would have been more than embarrassed. I'm just glad it didn't come to that. I like this group of guards. They haven't given me any reason do dislike them, and though I've been more then a little distrusting as a rule since I don't exactly want to be stabbed in the back, I feel somewhat safe to trust them a bit. I've already told them more than I probably should have, but I can only hope they don't spill the beans, and plus, they have information that others just don't, and their curiosity about my magic has helped me improve my own understanding at least a little.

  “Hey, what now?’ I look up to them, but they aren't looking at me anymore. They're looking at something on the road behind me and a ways back. Turning around I see what they're staring at. 6 auras. Powerful auras. There are 3 humanoids paired with 3 dragons. 2 of the dragons are Forestry, while the other seems to be a special variant around autumn or something. Of the humanoids, one seems to be an elf, while the other 2 are beastkin varients of some sort. Both beastkin seem to be tier 2, while the rest are all tier 3. The humanoids all wear white robes with what look like green roots engraved in them. both the humans and dragons sport pendants. Green triangles with a powerful life energy inside. I can see insane levels of mana in the pendants, more then even in the tier 3s. That's not to call them weak, though. If I were to fight the weakest of them, I'd lose.

  “what's happening?” I whisper to Willow. She looks tense, though not exactly afraid.

  “People of the church. They're basically the policing force here. Whatever they're here for, it's got to do with you.” She responds. The elf, who was standing in the middle with the variant dragon behind her, steps forward, looking straight at me.

  “Excuse me, sir, but I must ask you to come with me.” She says. It sounds like something between a military commander and a customer service voice, which confuses me a bit.

  “Um… am I allowed to ask why?” I ask hesitantly.

  “You are, though you won't get an answer.” She responds simply.

  “Go with them.” Grante tells me with a nod. “you’ll be ok.”

  You know, I doubt that. Maybe it's what Snowstorm had said, or maybe its the disciplined, almost blank expressions on the people's faces. But after a moment I just nod and step forward.

  “Thank you, guys.” I tell the group who were with me. “You've been a good help to me.”

  “don't sweat it. Just meet up with us when you're done. We'll be back at our post.” Willow nods to me with an encouraging smile.

  “Please follow us.” The humanoids climb onto the dragon's backs, then the dragons turn and take off. Eventually I nod, spread my wings, and fly after them.

  <{(0)}>

  Flying above the megacity is a whole experience all on its own. People of all shapes and sizes mill around below, and even some sapient beasts are there too, just being normal people like everyone else. It's kind of surreal. I feel like these dragons have their reputation for a reason, but literally everything I have seen says the exact opposite. I don't understand what is going on at all, and I feel like I'm not supposed to.

  “We will arrive soon.” comes a voice beside me. I turn to the right to see the elven lady sitting on the back of the variant dragoness.

  “Arrive where?” I ask, confused.

  “Look forward.” I look forward. All I see is the many dragons swarming around the tree at all times and…

  “Are we going to the great tree?” I ask, confused.

  “We are.” She responds with a nod. “To the church above.” Looking up I can see the openings of the canopy around the tree itself where Forestry dragons fly through. There are some winged humanoid races, and a few other types of dragons mixed in, all going up and down through the holes. Slowly our group began to angle upwards towards a hole in the canopy that gave off a certain feeling. It looked normal to regular eyes, though not to mine. That hole looked like it was absolutely radiating mana. It made me look closer at the other holes too, and now I notice that all of them give off some level of space mana.

  “Are those portals?” I ask, turning to the elf. For a second a hint of surprise leaks through, but she masks it and nods.

  “That they are. They all lead to different places, and the holes shuffle every day.”

  “why are we going to the one with the most mana?” I ask, gesturing to the huge portal-hole-thing. Again, she seemed surprised, then contemplative, before speaking again.

  “That is our destination.” She said simply. I could only shrug and follow as we enter the hole.

  You would think something would happen when you enter a 20 meter wide hole in space radiating space and life mana, but no. Besides being nearly blinded by the amount of mana around me, not much happened. We pop out of the hole in a massive room. It looks to me like a big church mized with a living room, made entirely out of wood. There are various comfort items big enough for a dragon 10 times my size, though they barely look used. There are also mats everywhere for people to kneel and pray to something. The room has 2 exits. The hole we exited, and a frankly absurdly large gateway into the next room. Oh, make that 3. In the center of the room is a massive 30 meter wide triangular hole going straight down. Walking up to it and looking down, I see dragons and humans alike everywhere in a room 10 times as large as this one. The room below looks to be fully a church, with carvings everywhere. Most look like the skeletal structure of a dragon, though some look like a human half made of bone, the right side of their bodty completely human and the left side skeletal-dragon-ish. The carvings of the humanoid are what interest me. A man in his 30’s (I think) with big muscles, short straight hair that I assume is white, 2 bone horns jutting backward on his head, a long tail made of bone, and 2 huge skeletal wings. In his hand, a weapon. A huge axe.

  “Wow…” I say. Honestly, the guy looks totally badass, though that's just my opinion. If I had a human form like this skeleton dragon seems to, I'd want a form kind of like that. I wonder what kind of weapon I'd want. Something long with a pointy end to thrust at people.

  “Wow indeed.” The elf nods. “That is a statue depicting the lord god Aftermath. The one we worship and serve.” I nod.

  “Seems like a good choice. If I were gonna worship a god, it'd be the one who looks like kratos.”

  “Who is… kratos?” The elf looks confused for a moment before shrugging. “Nevermind. Come with me.” She nods to the door and begins to walk forward, careful not to step on any of the mats. I turn and realize all the other ragons and humans are gone, with only the variant dragon left. She takes a place in front of the exit and simply stands there on guard. I assume she is a guard.

  Turning back to the elf I walk beside her and realize something.

  “I don't know your name.” I say aloud. “Am I allowed to know?”

  “Miria.” She responds with a nod. “And yours?”

  “Abhor” I say with a nod back. She immediately freezes and stares at me. For a moment her eyes bulge out of her head and she looks like she's about to have a heart attack. Her gaze darts to my soul core, then the frills and membranes across my body as if everything is starting to make sense to her. I'm no expert on human expressions, but she looks like she genuinely fears for her life for some reason.

  “Um… are you ok?” I ask, worried.

  “Y-yes… fine.” She nods, trying her best to put her pleasant expression back on. She fails. “P-please forgive any rudeness I have shown to you, sir Abhor.”

  “Stop being weird.” I frown at her, still worried but slightly annoyed. She just quickly nods.

  “O-of course. How would you like me to act?”

  “Not like this. Just take me wherever you need, please.” With a nod, she rushes over to the big doors and pushes them open. The entire room inside is dark. Pitch black. It feels quite inviting and friendly. Walking inside I practically hum from the soft, cool feeling of the darkness on my scales. Then the door closes behind me. My night vision and my eyes work together to make the room visible to me. The room is largely empty, just a huge spherical room the size of a football field. Miria still stands behind me, seeming to have a hard time with the dark, but not daring to create light for herself.

  Up ahead in front of me I can sense a large statue. The statue is one of Aftermath in his dragon form. The statue is easily 10 times my size, though that might be an understatement. The statue is in a sitting position, inert, its wings tucked against its side. there is a green, triangular shaped gem seeming to float in the center of the ribcage.

  “A statue?” I turn to Miria. But before she can answer, a soft green glow envelops the room, dispelling the darkness. The light comes from the statue. A green ethereal glow spreads through the shape of the skeleton like ectoplasm, and the green stone, which I now realize is a true soul core, begins to glow with power. Then the statue, which I now realize is absolutely not a statue, stands up, and turns to me.

  “Found you.”