Immateyrian Dragon

Only two Immateyrian Dragons have been observed among the hundreds of dragons that have taken residence in the caverns of the crystal mountain on top of the Forkspear central mana node.

They are one of the rare types of dragons that are covered in feathers. Their feathers are nearly transparent and have a hollow crystalline structure, trapping light within, giving these dragons a yellowish-white radiance.

A report of the scryer team has confirmed that these dragons can actually move across planes, from this material plane to other planes of existence. Their own bodies resonate along dimensional lines not unlike how the senses of scryers transcend the material plane.

It has been postulated that these dragons feed upon elementals spirits even if the latter have not been summoned on the material plane. If proven, this would also mean that Immateyrian Dragons can separate a corrupted spirit from the body it has possessed in the material plane.

Further studies need to be conducted.

Census of the dragon population living on Crystal Core Mountain

As ordered by the Chief Biomagi of the Ghalzan Empire

“So it’s Delphine Hall now?” Aya said, looking at a bronze plaque attached to a column.

Apparently, it has been renamed in honor of Delphine Ysolde Frostrune, the sealcrafter expert of the Dragon’s Chosen.

This hall used to be the library of his castle. It had five floors crammed with towering shelves full of books and scrolls; now most of the book-filled shelves held data orbs. The change of times, he mused.

He felt a slight change in the air pressure, followed by sliding hinges. Someone entering from the main door?

Silently, he rushed to the end of the floor so that he could look at who entered. He did not try to hide his presence since the curse placed on him already made him look like a normal human, possibly even to scryer eyes.

“Huh. What are these kids doing here?”

Aya looked down from the third-floor balcony of Delphine Hall. He was once again wearing his black robes, his ever-present basket hang by his side. All the acting tired him out; he already has what he wanted from the Church, so he dropped the disguise.

Propping his head using his elbows on the wooden railings, he raised his brow while observing Jel along with three green robed youngsters enter the main door of the hall. He recognized the companions of Jel as the ones who were with the Fahllyrs after he fought with the possessed assassin in the arena.

Normally, he wouldn’t remember people he only met once, but they were with him when Jel and Aileen treated him so barbecue so he quickly associated their faces with food and recognized them.

He tilted his head upward and looked at the high stone ceiling while trying to remember their names. Did they introduce themselves? They probably did, it was just that most of the time he has a hard time remembering names. He scratched his chin while squeezing his brain. Nope, he really can’t remember their names.

No matter. He’ll just refer to them as the ‘three green kids’ for now.

Jel waved her hands at them, urging them to move forward. She then turned and went out the door, leaving the three green kids behind.

“What was she supposed to be? A lookout? And was she the one who unlocked the enchantments on the door? She probably has a plan fixing those enchantments after they leave,” he muttered while lazily observing them. “I wonder what they are doing here.”

After acquiring the orb and his necklace, Aya quickly left the vault. He deliberated on whether or not he should have hidden the unconscious bodies inside the vault to prevent anyone from stumbling across them; however, the path to the vault was hidden behind an illusion wall, so no one will probably find them accidentally. The poor unconscious clergy would need a few hours to regain all the mana they lost.

Luckily, no alarm sounded after he stole the orb and the necklace. Most likely, it was because the high priest opened the vault. He patted himself on the back for deciding to trick the high priests into coming with him. Who knows how much time he will waste looking for which hiding spot they kept the Dragon’s Heart. His castle has many nooks and crannies that are very difficult to find.

He was relieved that no major remodeling was done on the castle when they converted it into a temple. The people gave it immense historical value and wanted to preserve its structure as a sign of respect to him. This was convenient for him as most of the hidden passageways were left untouched and undiscovered. He used this network of secret paths to avoid the people roaming around the temple; there were only a few people walking around this temple compared to the days when he sat on the throne so he did not spend too much effort in sneaking around.

The three green kids were oblivious to the black robed man watching them from above.

Holding up his empty basket, he scolded himself for not bringing any snacks. On second thought, it would have been harder to conceal his basket beneath priest robes if he filled it with food.

The three green kids, with set determined faces, strode quickly down the wing of the hall, taking care to step lightly with each foot.

“Green robes. Hmm… I saw some green robed old people chattering excitedly a while ago. Are they from the same faction or something?” Aya had earlier noticed that it wasn’t only the Fahllyrs and the church that have taken residence in his past home, he did not have any problem with that, besides, he was the one who left the place for five hundred years- they kept his castle spic and span; he couldn’t complain.

Delphine Hall was shaped like a cross with one arm, the one with the main door, longer than the three others. Aya strolled along the third floor while looking down at the kids. They moved towards the center of the hall where its four wings meet. Aya walked as if his feet weren’t touching the floor. These three green kids were quite confident that no one will be around here at this time, he observed. Did they lure them away or something? When he first entered the hall, he wondered why he couldn’t sense the presence of anyone; these kids might have something to do with it.

He would occasionally glance at the items on the shelves while he shadowed the three green kids.

Originally, he wanted to immediately leave the temple after accomplishing his goal, but he remembered that he has dozens of scrolls and books left in his former library; maybe there was something among them among that he could help him in his current situation?

Another reason that he wanted to visit this specific hall was to examine the expanded citysigil placed by Emperor Malvar. He only read about this Malvar, but he appeared to be a powerful elemental magic user. Harnessing the power of the mana node and channelling it to a magical rune formation that was expected to last for thousands of years meant that he was at least a low-tier Archsealcrafter- and one can’t reach that high level of sealcrafting without being a mid-tier Adept mage. Taking the size of this seal, he should be a high-tier Archsealcrafter, unless he employed dozens of Adept sealcrafters to help him.

“These kids also want to see citysigil?”

He can see them hurrying to the pool in the middle Delphine Hall.

Yes. A pool.

A large circular pool ringed by grey stone steps, each square stone has an orb embedded upon it. All of the orbs were activated and gave off a faint blue light. The pool was filled to the brim with a clear transparent fluid, it was basically a liquid solution that has incorporated the purest mana extracts into the mixture.

Delphine was the person who invented the process of making the liquid- the most likely reason that they named this hall after her.

The green robed girl with a frizzy hair wanted to touch the orbs but a boy that looked a bit like her, possibly her brother, pulled her away. This boy then took out his own orb hidden inside his loose sleeves and nippily swapped out the rooted orb.

Aya can’t help but be impressed at what the boy did. “So that’s his plan on how not to leave traces while using the terminals. A custom made data orb that has compatibility with different kinds of terminals?” Aya was not claiming that he knew about all the technical aspects of jacking a data orb terminal. Data orbs were just beginning to be developed during his reign; they were based off the design of Delphine. These data orbs contained an imitation of the solution of Delphine that was in the pool in the middle of the hall named after her.

The clear liquid suddenly stirred, rippling here and there, and then it settled down again. The three green kids froze and visibly relaxed after the waters stopped heaving. They looked at each other.

“Did they fai-?”

Specks of light floated out of the pool, the specks became rays, the rays converged and fused into a pillar of light. The boy manipulating the orb furiously tried to tone down the bright light illuminating the entire Delphine Hall.

Aya was smiling broadly while holding up his hand to shield his eyes from the blazing light. “Damn, the stuff kids could do these days. Huh, I sound like an old man.” He chuckled. “I spent the last five hundred years sleeping, that shouldn’t count towards my age.”

“It’s working!” The girl screamed. A boy with golden hair tried to cover her mouth but she pulled away and started jumping up and down.

The boy who looked like her turned from his work on the orb and scolded her. She punctually behaved. He really was her brother.

Aya clapped his hand lightly. The pillar of light has vanished, leaving behind, millions upon millions of different colored light particles floating in the air. The particles formed into six insanely intricate seals. These formations floated in the air above the pool, spacing themselves, nearly reaching the high ceiling five levels above.

“Wow! You did it, Felix!” A girl’s voice echoed throughout the spacious hall. She really has a penchant for screaming.The two boys promptly shushed her.

Oh, so Felix was the name of that boy. Better remember it, Aya reminded himself.

Seeing that the kids were slowly examining each level of the seal, their eyes moving up to the ceiling, Aya stepped away from the side of the balcony.

The scale model was a truly grand sight to behold. The concentric circles and many-sided designs circumscribed in each seal level were transforming unceasingly. Each seal contains tens of thousands of runes that were constantly moving and rearranging themselves. They have all been color-coded to represent the amount of mana flowing through them and how they transform its energy. It was a whirling dance of colors, the veins of the city drawing its lifeblood from deep within the earth, refining the furious waves of destructive power emanating from deep within the core.

The lowest seal was used to attract part of the streams from the mana node to the complex seal superstructure. He counted three intermediary seals regulating the raging power of the mana node; taming it into something fit to power different kinds of engynaretech and for the usage of the city as a whole.

Hundreds of silvery hair like things emerged from the pool, floating upward through the different levels of the formation. It was just a small-scale simulation of how the structure receives the mana flow; in reality, the mana node is gushing deep within the earth and would be straining against the bottommost seal.

The power seemed to be divided between the fifth and the sixth seal. Aya admitted to himself that he really does not know that much elemental sealcrafting, but based from his own experience as a void sealcrafter, he deduced that Malvar chose to separate the structure for powering the defences of the city and the one for powering non-military infrastructure.

The three green kids below were gaping at the colossal projection; it must have been the first time in their lives that they have seen such a high level of magecraftmanship. Even the young girl seemed to have forgotten how to scream in excitement at the magnificent spectacle.

“Meh.” Aya snorted. “Mine is still way better than this one.” But he can’t help but agree that it was truly a breath-taking sight.

But he did not come here to be impressed at the creation of Emperor Malvar. He wanted to confirm something that needed the pool of Delphine Hall.

The pool was not merely an oversized projector; its actual worth was that it is capable of simulating the energy flow from the mana node, something that normal data orbs could not do. It could mimic the behaviour of the mana flow from an ordinary infant up to the earth-shattering energy that the mana node spewed out. It was tantamount to predicting how all the blades of grass on a valley would grow, how the hair on one’s head will fall, or break, or split, how the waves carry a single pebble across the wide ocean. This pool was the creation of, arguably, the greatest sealcrafter in the history of Forkspear, Delphine Ysolde Frostrune.

Without this pool, Aya couldn’t have created the city sigil. His own seal superstructure enabled a gigantic void seal to be powered by the pure elemental mana of the world. Beat that Malvar!

This projection confirmed his suspicion that Malvar's seal directly connected itself to the mana node.

He took once last peek at the three green kids. It was now Felix, the probably sister of Felix, and golden haired kid, he thought. Calling them ‘three green kids’ was shorter.

What was he supposed to do with this newly found information? How does it fit in the bigger picture? He mulled things over while walking back to the hidden corridor he used in entering Delphine Hall.

The walls of the third floor were lined with cabinets punctuated with statues in between. The people here don’t mind being stared at by statues of beasts and monsters while they are researching? No one thought that these things looked out of place?

Aya stopped in front of a tableau of a stone griffon locked in death’s embrace with a relatively small troll. He grinned while examining the statue; this was one of his most favourite secret passageways.

His balled fists stretched in front of him. He extended his thumbs and his index fingers. Four fingers will light the way.

He stuck his left thumb and index finger up the griffon’s nares- its nostrils. His right thumb and index finger went deep into the trolls' nostrils.

“Left griffon nostril. Right troll nostril. Two right griffon nostrils. Both the troll nostrils at the same time. Left griffon nostril and left troll nostril at the same time.”

Nothing visible changed, no concealed tunnel opened up. He paid it no heed, his head was still thinking about other matters.

“I wonder how this new information plays out,” Aya said. “That Emperor Malvar actually knew that I, the First Emperor Krystfallen, was a void mage.”

He stepped forward towards the statue. There was no resistance; it has turned into an illusion. Aya slowly disappeared between the griffon and the troll.

A flurry of blades sliced through the air, parting even the tiniest speck of dust.

A gigantic curved sword howled in response, deflecting scores of sword waves.

Two men were facing each other. One had a pair of shining sabres, with gilded serpentine handguards, crossed in front of him. The other had a massive black scimitar raised high over his head.

The dual wielding man charged with such speed that to the untrained eye it would look like he teleported and materialized right in front of his opponent, below his guard. He was ready to press the crossed sabres; there wasn’t enough space for his adversary to swing down the scimitar.

His twin blades erupted in white flames, both of them lashed out like a cracking whip, a cross slash quartered his opponent. Only that…his opponent was not there anymore.

Twelve people materialized, surrounding the sabre wielding man. Twelve curved blades were brought down, black streaks divided the earth easily like a pie topped with fallen trees and dug out boulders.

Clouds of dust stirred up and eventually covered the battlefield.

Metal striking metal; it was as if a large battle was fought in the shade of dust.

A dozen pillars of white flame emerged from the dust cloud and united, resulting into a large ball of fire that consumed the patch of forest that they were fighting in. Even a nearby lake dried up in a flash.

The destruction did not stop there. The earth rumbled and shook, letting loose dozens of molten spikes from deep within its bowels, covering the land turning it into a garden of lava.

“You had to ruin the landscape, dear brother.”

“You were the one who sliced the land in the first place.”

Twelve identical men holding sabres in each hand appeared on top of spikes that were jutting out of the earth and spewing lava.

Twelve identical men followed suit, they stabbed their black scimitars into the molten rock. All of them cracked their fingers at the same time; it was as if they have choreographed their movements.

The twelve green eyed men brandishing black scimitars laughed in unison. “I may have carved the land, but there was no need for you to set it ablaze. Look! I have covered it in lava. I heard that ashes from deep within the earth are good fertilizers. We can just ask our druid friend to accelerate the growth of plants and all of these will be as if we did not fight here.”

“The landscape will be covered in pointed little hills,” all of the Lucas clones replied.

“Ah, I will level everything here. No worries.” The earth shook once again as the gigantic earth spikes retracted back to the ground.

The twin brothers dissolved their clones and clasped hands.

“It was a good sparring match,” Logan said.

“Indeed, it momentarily took my mind off the failure of Sicarius.”

“It seems that we have underestimated this BasketSlayer fellow. He had something hidden up his sleeves.”

Lucas nodded and then cracked his neck. “A fitting challenge. He should be proud to be a stepping stone for our way to success.”

The two brothers stared at the vast valley, in the middle of which the gleaming capital of Kryperia stood like the grandest layered cake in the world.

A thin crust has already formed over the lava streams that traversed the land on which the powerful brothers did battle.

Lucas gently stepped on the lava, allowing it to slowly flow over his articulated foot armor. “Sicarius has lost to the demon in the knife. Possessed by a corrupted spirit. Such an embarrassment.”

Logan shook his head in disgust. “It was pathetic that he needed that cursed knife in the first place.”

“Do you think it’s true that this clown of a warrior exorcized the demon in less than a second?”

“That would be impossible at his level. What is he supposed to be? The bishop using the Dragon’s Heart?”

The two brothers shared a laugh. It was a ridiculous notion that this no name warrior can rival the power of the most powerful priests. It was most likely the case that the people who witnessed the scene were exaggerating the level of possession that Sicarius had undergone.

Logan trailed his eye on the glistening black edge of his blade and said, “This BlasketSlayer needs to have a taste of my blade. Warrior monkeys like him need to stay in the hellhole backward country where they came from. Such a disgrace.”

“Let us see which one of us will have the opportunity of teaching him a lesson. I doubt we need to use our cloning technique.”

“Many a mage has foolishly thought that we are merely making illusions and tried to dispel it. No one has yet to discover the real secret of our technique. But, yes, I agree with you. Using it on the likes of this clown would be pitiful.”

“We haven’t even used this technique in a serious battle,” Lucas said.

Giving his brother a sly smile, Logan said, “Once the emperor sees our real power, he would have to appoint us as Devastator Knights.”

“We’ll see what these proud martial noble houses have to say after the twin sons of Merchant House Baccarat becomes Devastator Knights.”

Lucas pulled his foot from the hardened lava that covered it and walked back towards their companions who were watching the brothers spar from a distance. Logan followed suit.

Aya decided not to take anything from Delphine Hall. The only way the sealcrafters would know that someone broke in their sanctuary was that if they found that something was taken. There would be investigations and there’s a large possibility that those kids would be the suspects. The kids were not exactly top notch stealth experts; then again, neither was he. But if the sealcrafters seriously investigated, the evidence they will find will point to the kids breaking in.

The Church would also investigate about the identity of the person who stole their precious treasure, and if they heard about some kids who stole from the sealcrafters on the same day someone stole from them, they might also suspect those kids or think that they were somehow connected with the robbery that was committed upon the Church. He doesn’t need to frame up someone anyway. There’s no way they can catch him. How were they supposed to catch someone that was supposedly dead?

Too bad, he really wanted to take some of the scrolls. Not that he would have any use for them now since most of them were made for the war against the Blight. Still, he wanted some of them as a keepsake; he was terribly fond of the things he creates, just like a painter who still wants to see his painting even after he has sold it. Aya remembered that he also stocked all the storage rooms in the lower floors of the outer temple with battle scrolls. The defenders of Krysperium have most likely used all of them.

Someday, he would tour this temple, which was once his castle, once again. Unfortunately, he does not have the luxury of doing that now.

He wondered how the church would react to the loss of the Dragon’s Heart, plus the necklace he stole; although they probably wouldn’t worry much about the necklace.

Once they found out that the priest called Nathaniel had his clothes stolen in the courtyard, it would be easy to put two and two together and conclude that there was some shape shifting intruder who sneaked in to steal the orb. The two high priests and some of the priests and initiates would surely remember that Nathaniel was with them when they went to the vault. They would also remember that it was the person masquerading as a priest who suggested to them that they should go and check the orb.

Best of luck to them in trying to find him, he thought while grinning.

His thoughts wandered to the kids who sneaked into Delphine Hall. What did they intend to do with the design of Malvar? Were they curious and wanted to see the design of the citysigil?

Did they know that that wasn’t his formation? He doubts if even the sealcrafters working there knew what his own formation looks like.

One thing was certain. Malvar knew that he was a void mage. If Malvar knew, then it was likely that other rulers of Krysperia knew about it, and probably some of the highest ranking officials. Just imagine the turmoil if it was leaked that their beloved savior was actually one of the void mages they so detest; which was probably the reason why the pool in Delphine Hall no longer contains the model of his own citysigil.

He was quite proud of himself when he figured out an ‘easy’ way to tell if the royalty knows about the truth that he was a void mage.

If Emperor Malvar wanted to make an additional citysigil for the expansion of Krysperium, the easiest way to do it is to just connect to Emperor Krystfallen’s citysigil and draw power from it. He would have been spared the trouble of making four huge seals just for power. But he couldn’t jack on to the First Emperor’s creation.

It was because it was a void seal.

Aya had employed every bit of brain matter inside his skull to find a way for the elemental mana energy that flows from the node to power a void seal. Malvar’s creation, the latter Emperor being an elemental mage, needs to be powered by elemental energy.

Emperor Malvar knew that he couldn’t tap on to the original citysigil in place, surely he would have tried. Which means that he knew that it was a void seal made by a void mage, which was the First Emperor.

“I should be a detective!” Aya happily said, his voice bouncing off the stone walls of the long empty corridor. “I should get out of here, I guess.”

Enough time has passed for someone to notice the missing clergy and go looking for them. But they won’t find them that easily. The vault was in the opposite direction of the courtyard; the initial reaction of people would be to run towards the miracle, not go somewhere deep and hidden in the inner temple. The person who knew that their group went to the vault was the other high priest. He's probably praying with all his might.

Aya tried to keep away from the main hallways as much as possible. He also checked the secret passageways that he was using if it has been rigged with security spells and alarms. Most of them weren’t. A bit of knowledge about void runes was needed to unlock these passageways so it was not a surprise that most of them were not discovered.

He had these secret passages made mostly for his use. He did not like people knowing where he went.

The passages he was using were different from the emergency escape paths of his castle. Aya had told the head of his guards, Alluverius Fahllyr about the escape paths in case they needed to evacuate the castle during the siege, so he was sure the descendants of Fahllyr knows about this paths and have them secured in the event that someone from the outside uses them to gain entrance to the temple.

“Nearly there.” His aim was to reach the topmost floor of the highest tower of the temple and jump out its window. That would translate to about a quarter kilometer of freefall down to the next level of the city.

He had worked hard today, he has earned some fun and enjoyment.

As he was about to round a corner he stopped suddenly stopped. “People are going out of the room. It’s those green robed geezers I saw earlier.”

The old men passed him, not even looking down the narrow side corridor that he tucked himself in.

He walked out and looked at their retreating backs. “They went out of the room I wanted to enter. Perfect timing.”

The door leading to the room which has the window that Aya wanted to jump out was slightly ajar. He couldn’t sense the presence of anyone inside the room. Finally! It is probably dark outside by now so no one would see a black-robed leaping from the castle.

He pushed open the door…and saw someone was inside.

“Um, hello.” Aya slowly waved at the man.

The man looked incredibly old, Aya was surprise that he was actually alive, a shrivelled up, wrinkly, bony old man, wearing a plain white linen shirt and shorts. He looked at Aya with mild surprise, his right eye was open while the other was closed.

How the grakking dimwadness did he not sense this person? Was it because the old man looks like an unwrapped mummy and doesn’t count as a living thing?

“Hello, would you care for a cup of tea?” The old man gestured to an unused cup on the table. Aya could see several cups on it. The old man was probably having some kind of old men convention here with all the old men he saw outside.

Aya paused a bit and considered that he should technically be a member of the old men club. “No thank you, I’m not really into tea.”

“Is there anything that I can help you with?” the old man asked. His left eyelid trembled a bit before slowly opening.

A momentary expression of surprise skimmed across Aya’s face. The old man’s left eye contained a small blue orb instead of an eyeball. The orb had a tiny seal etched on it. The seal glowed red and then the orb rotated in its socket, showing another seal, then it rotated again. Different types of seal cover the blue orb that nested inside the old man’s left eye socket.

“Err… Can I use your window to jump out?”

“Of course. Come visit again if you want to try drinking tea…or jump out this window again.”

Aya walked to the window and placed one foot on the seal. “Thanks!”

The old man raised his cup to him.

Aya dove into the sea of lights below. Furious winds were whipping his robes to and fro.

“What a nice old man. And he's the current holder of Delphine’s left eye! I wonder who has the right eye. “