POV The Trio:
Dozens of small, ice-like gems spilled out of the small pouch, glinting as they rolled all over the black, gleaming floor.
They played with various colors. Between them were crystal clear brilliants, deep-blue amethysts and sapphires, and even milky-white smooth stones.
The dragon stared at the small gems that refracted the light from the massive pool of molten lava in which the dragon was submerged.
“Well done, my minions! With these gems, my power will rise once more!”
Five of his most loyal servants and minions kneeled before him, their golden eyes reflecting the shine of the dragon facing them.
There were three players and two NPCs. The dumb but lucky spearman and his two friends. The blonde, elven girl and the tall draconic knight.
‘How can a dragon grow stronger just from some gems?’ They all had the same thought on their mind.
They all stole glances at the glinting stones as if they refused to miss what would happen.
Ding!
//
The main storyline quest: The Connection with dead, advanced:
Objective: Wait for further instructions.
//
The dragon mumbled as his golden eyes darted from one corner to another, scanning the gemstones, “Good! Very good! The number is even larger, there are even more of them than one hundred. Even the mana print fits!”
“Thank you, highness! We had to search the records of all the auction houses in the capital and investigate rich private collectors and nobles to track all one hundred of them… We and the group under our command turned every stone to find them.”
Suddenly the dragon’s eyes turned red, and the air became heavier and denser. The vile, familiar aura of curses that made them feel nauseous spilled all over the dragon’s mysterious palace.
A large black shadow of a dragon spread over them, covering everything with its shadowy wings.
A draft carried distant whispers of ice and coldness that pushed back even the blazing heat of the dragon, “My gems! My gems! They were stolen! Now they are back! They are my again!”
‘What the?’
“You have fulfilled your end of the bargain! Now you have the approval of my soul! Go and recover my remains, with my approval, their power will become your power…” The whispers faded away, but the creepy and cold aura didn’t vanish as the lava flowing in the armor and lightning dancing around the horns of the huge dragon slowly turned neon-red.
“What is this?” The spearman could no longer keep his mouth shut as his confusion grew beyond the limit.
“Curious, aren’t we?” The dragon’s red eyes almost made them collapse as they turned at the group, but they still kept kneeling just through their will’s force and the players’ pain suppression.
“I will tell you as you will not act based upon it! We dragons like to hold onto our grudges or richness, we will not even leave them after our deaths, forcing our lingering wills to haunt this world. I am the revenge of dragons! I will collect all the grudges and treasures of the dead dragons and turn them into my power!”
The dragon’s voice became even more intense.
“Now, go! Take your fellow immortals and search the region for sites that were cursed after the death of dragons. Map them for me by their size and the power of the curse!”
Ding!
//
The main storyline quest: The Connection with Dead, advanced:
New Objective: Search for lingerings remnants of dead dragons
//
‘Now it makes sense! The connection with the dead! The boss wants to raise their power by fulfilling the inheritances of his dead kin. How many dragons died, and how many of them still linger in this world as curses of resentment? How much power do they contain?’
The dragon burst out of the magma lake, their huge armored body rising out of it like a submarine from under the sea. Their body towered above them all, hundreds of meters above them.
The player’s eyes almost popped out. This was the first time the three players witnessed the dragon’s size from such close proximity, making them realize the absurdity of his scale.
Then they fully spread their massive crystal wings, launching thousands of magma droplets in all directions.
POV Vesuvius:
Vesuvius felt the cold flow through his veins, almost like his blood had turned into an ice-cold, arctic river.
He felt the cursed heart turn into a cold spot as if he had a piece of ice implanted in his chest.
He soared through the sky, the snow-covered peaks melting under the heat radiating from his body. The entire sky burned around him in neon-red flames as his body tried to heat up and push back the coldness.
Ding!
//
You have awakened the heart of the winter dragon. Finish the transformation!
Until finished, you will constantly take frost damage.
//
Ding!
//
You have gained an emergency quest!
Objective: Recover the body of the elder winter dragon to finish your transformation.
Reward: ???
Failure: Your body will fight against itself.
//
He now had the heart of a winter dragon, yet his body remained that of fire, magma, and heat. They were utterly incompatible! Even now, he wanted to grunt from the pain of his cells constantly dying and regenerating.
The heat and coldness constantly clashed within his body as if it was a battlefield of ice and fire.
It was like an autoimmunity disorder, causing his body to damage itself.
The lightning crackled around the dragon once more as he turned into a streak of lightning and fire that drew a line across the sky, piercing through the clouds.
He saw the lake of the weird frozen light grow on the horizon and felt the power of holiness and ice radiating out of it.
The closer he got, the brighter the lake turned, as if it reacted to his presence and to the aura of resentment and ice radiating out of his second heart.
Suddenly a wave of holy power and light washed all over him, and the world changed into that of light.
‘Shit! When the will of the ice dragon survived, why would I assume that the same wasn’t true for the seraph!’𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗇t
“You shall not pass!” The lake of ice exploded into billions of ice-light shards that moved and swirled into glittering streams and swarms as if they had come to life.