The young woman lying on the hot stone floor that was glowing in red light stirred; her long brown hair with few traces of red mixed in was in a mess, sprawled on the stone. She slowly sat up, her joints creaking as if she had slept for days.
Her lids quickly opened, revealing a pair of reptilian eyes glowing in a crimson red light.
She was in a brightly glowing chamber of blazing hot stone, thick vapours were drifting in the air around her, and all of the walls, ceiling and floor were red, glowing in the heat. Her eyes flashed in surprise as she felt only slight heat from the blazing hot stone.
She tried to remember how she got there, but the last thing she remembered was the thick red liquid that she had drank, ‘Huh, how long was I out? Am I wyrmkin now?’
She hurriedly brought her hand towards her head, patting around as if trying to touch something. Suddenly her hand stopped as she touched long curled horns glowing in bright yellowy light with a trail of silvery webbing trailing on their surface.
“Hahahaha!” she exploded in laughter, her eyes flashing with mana surging through her body.
She could feel that magic circulating in her veins had changed, moving with immense speed and radiating such tremendous energy that was so great that she felt like her previous mana was like plain water compared to the most exquisite soup.
A small mirror appeared in her hand, with her free hand trailing on her face that became smooth as that of a newborn baby, pale and without any blemishes. Of course, she felt happy, as any woman would appreciate getting prettier.
“Now tell me, what is your plan?!” the cold voice that echoed through the smoke-filled cave that she was in brought her out of her trance. The smoke around her whirled, moving as if it had its own will, slowly revealing the large wy…, ‘No, they are not wyrm. They are a dragon. It was foolish to believe that such beasts would simply die out. ‘
The invisible connection between Tania and the dragon pulsed, making her immediately realize that all of her calculations were wrong, ‘This changes everything! With the power of dragon blood flowing through my veins, my strength will grow more than I could ever hope for. I as may become an archmage.’
The large pulse of magic spread through the room, penetrating her body and sending shivers down her back. Her gaze again fell upon the giant dragon, making her realize that it was not time for her to get lost in her thoughts.
The giant dragon was lying on the ground, watching her with their reverse-slitted eyes that were dimly glowing in golden brilliance. Thick clouds of smoke and steam rose up from their body, immediately drifting towards the hole in the ceiling. She couldn’t help but shiver in awe, seeing the rough but elegant curves of the dragon’s heavy armoured body, with surrounding air pulsing from heat.
The three majestic horns with lightning striking between them were decorating their head as if it was the most splendid royal crown.
‘Calm down, Tania, you need to focus!’
“Well, you draconic Highness, the commander Damian and I will lure the baron of the town, and you will strike to kill him!”
“Don’t try to fool me! Such an action would only bring more trouble to me. There is no way that our fight would go unnoticed!”
Tania immediately raised her hands in panic, not understanding how she could even think about something as ridiculous as trying to trick her master, “No, your highness, let me finish first! We will…”
POV Vesuvius:
Vesuvius was alone in his brightly glowing chamber of heated stone, still thinking about what happened, ‘These red eyes, they have shape and slits like dragon eyes, but their colour is wrong.’
He had the analysis results, but he couldn’t wrap his head around its results.
//
Analyze result:
Name: Tania Alia Azerlisia
Species: Dragonkin(Human/High Demon)
Occupation: NPC/Noble
Level: 43
Danger level: dangerous
//
‘I am sure that she was just a human before drinking my blood, so how is this possible?’ Vesuvius couldn’t simply understand how she could become a demon-human hybrid after drinking dragon blood without making large assumptions.
‘Maybe she had some demonic ancestry. That would explain how her family managed to hold their title. Even though thin, her demon bloodline should at least give them some small advantages over regular humans. There was a good reason why the four balance races were not playable races. They would simply steamroll over players playing as anything else.
‘My blood contained a large amount of pure energy. Is it possible that it could energize remnants of demonic bloodline in her? Shouldn’t they fight against each other… wait there is that fallen dragon, and they seemingly have no problem using draconic and demonic powers at once. So are demons and dragons somehow compatible? They are not each other opposite like dragons and reapers or angels and demons…’
Vesuvius quickly shook his head, pushing such dangerous thoughts out of his mind before he could try to do something stupid like try to follow the footsteps of the fallen dragon.
The unexpected change still brought many concerns to the dragon ‘Is she still under my power after becoming a human-demon hybrid? Well, higher demons are not even in the upper half of the demon hierarchy, and in the meantime, true dragons are at the peak of the draconic hierarchy, so I should still be able to control her.’
In Lorenia, all four balance species were split into three spheres. For dragons, it was lesser, higher, and pinnacle draconic species. Demons had their own equivalent in the form of common, noble, and royal demons.
Higher demons were the strongest of the common demons, but their potential couldn’t compare to something like a true dragon.
‘Well, I need to focus on the plan now.’
Sometime later:
The giant dragon hovered in the starry night sky above the tall mountain peak, his eyes focused on the disgusting fortress on the horizon, its undecorated rough grey walls slowly reaching towards the sky, feeling like an eyesore.
Suddenly thick, black clouds formed out of nowhere, quickly spinning and rotating above the tower. The crimson red lightning with a black smoke-like texture mixed in struck from the sky, and the red arc connected with the tower’s tip. The aura filled with sadness and pain spread through the lands, everything enveloped by red light. Surprisingly there was no thunder.
‘Such a reckless plan…’ Vesuvius couldn’t but shake his head; still, he knew that the recklessness of the plan was why it would work, ‘With this, no one will suspect my involvement!’
The red light pulsed through the fortress’s highest middle tower, pressure spreading through the forest. All trees waved at once as if a shockwave passed through them, flocks of birds escaping from the greenery of the forest, flying towards the horizon.
‘If I just went and murdered the baron, I would not get away with it without making myself more problems than I would solve, and there would be no way to hide our battle, but this way, it can work.’
Vesuvius wasn’t a fool, knowing that the baron would have a level above fifty, forcing him to use his most powerful attacks, making their fight very flashy.
The dragon flapped his wings, quickly gliding downwards, leaving behind a streak of yellow, golden and blue light. The winds swished around him as everything turned into a blur as he dived forwards at high speed, bracing with his wings stopping just a few stories above the ground, trees under him creaking from the shockwave made by his wings.
Thick clouds rose out of his large bulky body as he hovered before a wide tunnel in the cliff.
Masked figures were already standing outside, watching the red sky above them.
The dragon opened his mouth, yellow light escaping from them, glowing like a star in the sky, “My minions, the foolish baron, in his cowardice, summoned demons to attack us, but as a fool, he will quickly find out that they are impossible to control! Protect this hideout until the demons turn against him!”
All of the players roared, excitingly jumping.
“Event is here!”
“Hahaha, I want to see the face of that stupid priest when he logs in and finds out what the baron did!”
In the meantime, Vesuvius snickered inwardly on how everything was going exactly by the plan, ‘Demons are such good scapegoats. Every time they show up, you can frame all problems on them!’
He had some doubts about summoning demons, especially with his latest minion having demon ancestry, but he felt like it was just baseless worry.
‘The rift is large enough to allow in enough demons that the baron will have to attack them personally, but not big enough to let in too strong demons. The baron will be forced to go to the tower to fight the demons.
‘In the meantime, his son will have a bad accident. Then I will sweep on the tower, killing both the baron and closing the rift created by the sacrifice. Finally, a new baroness will take over after her father dies as a hero in a fight against evil demons invading his barony. I will be a hero. My pawn will be a baron, and my minions will have fun. There will be absolutely not trail leading to me. What can go wrong? Still it feels little bit too overcomplicated to my liking…’