Eisen was flying through the air with the large wooden box properly attached to his body. He was trying to make sure that they were actually comfortable during this relatively long trip, so he tried to keep his body as steady as absolutely possible.
Either way, soon, Eisen started seeing the mountains in the distance, and then looked down a bit, "Kirisho. Could you cloak me a bit?" The old man asked, and without another moment of hesitation, mist streamed out of the amulet around Eisen's neck and covered the old man's whole enormous body.
"Is this alright?" Kirisho asked, and Eisen quickly nodded with a smile on his face, "Mhm, it's perfect this way. Thanks."
It still wasn't necessarily inconspicuous like this, but it was better than Eisen's demon form just like that. A few minutes later, Eisen started being able to see the mass of players that were camping out in front of the town because there wasn't actually enough space inside of the town. He a was a little bit annoyed to see how many people were actually brainlessly gathering here for something like this.
Eisen soon descended on the platform right in front of Ailren's cave, where he carefully put down the box before deactivating his demonic transformation, although he kept his size increased. He usually didn't, because not many places were built to be able to hold Eisen at this size, but as this was the place a dragon lived, the caves were rather spacious and more than big enough for the old man like this.
"Are you guys alright?" Eisen asked as he squatted down a bit and looked at the five people coming out of the box. Stahl seemed completely fine, although Evalia seemed a bit uncomfortable and stretched out properly the moment that she had the chance to. Eisen figured that the first 'changes' were setting in for her now as well. After all, Eisen and Brody's sense of pain didn't reappear instantly, rather, it was a gradual growth.
It would probably still take a little while for Evalia to get to the point where she's going to fully get her sense of pain back, but she should still be at the start of that path at the very least.
After everyone got out, Eisen picked up the box again and carried it into the cave, so that it couldn't be spotted by anyone from down in Melroe somehow, and then placed it down behind a cave wall where it could be easily missed when entering.
A little while later, the group managed to reach the place they wanted to reach, it was the treasury of the Ancient Gold Dragon Aylrentyrth, who was just leisurely sleeping, and not waking up even after people entered the cave. Somewhat annoyedly, Eisen stepped up to Ailren and placed his foot onto his body to just roll him over and hopefully wake him up.
The moment he did so, Ailren's eyes opened up and he uncomfortably looked over at Eisen before slowly sitting up, "Ah, Eisen. It has been a while. Who may those five be?" The Gold Dragon asked, and Eisen one after another quickly explained. He didn't want to spend too much time on this, since this wasn't why he was here.
"That's Evalia, you already met her and literally picked her up at the Humans' capital town. The boy is Stahl, my grandson. Then there's Caria, a Myconid Girl, Melissa, a Queen Bee, or rather Great Empress Bee now, as well as Sal, a highly-magical spider-boy. But you already met Caria and Melissa."
"Interesting, all three of them are monsters, and yet their forms have turned this humanoid only at Rank 5? Really, there has to be something about you that is causing this. I doubt it is only your attitude." Ailren pointed out, and Eisen slightly shrugged.
"Probably. I apparently was obsessed with trying to create proper artificial life, and since that life was supposed to be humanoid, maybe it was that. I can't be sure though, so don't quote me on that." The old man pointed out, and Ailren lightly chuckled and then turned over toward Eisen again.
"But you yourself have changed quite a lot as well, haven't you? Last time I saw you, you had merely gained the ability to change your size. And now you can grow to a size comparable to mine." Ailren pointed out, and Eisen slightly shrugged as he activated his Draconic Demon King transformation.
His body grew roughly seven or eight more meters, and Eisen's crown-like horns nearly scraped along the ceiling, and he was now actually towering over Ailren's body.
"Well then, nevermind that. Even larger, I see? Ah, and it seems you even reached a different important point? Two, even. I congratulate you on becoming a King and a True Champion. It is truly an honor to have been the one to give you your first trials." Ailren pointed out in a slightly sentimental tone of voice, and Eisen just looked back at him with a light smile as he deactivated his demonic transformation again.
"Thank you. But I think I should tell you the reason why I'm here right now." Eisen pointed out, "As you might know, a lot of people have gathered in and around Melroe these past few days."
With a slow nod, Ailren looked at the cave entrance, "Yes, that is so. Roughly two weeks ago, one of those 'Artificials' made it up here. He came uninvited and was rather rude as well. He tried to attack me without any hesitation. I glared at him and he fell to the ground, so I used a quick fire breath to get rid of him. And then suddenly those people started gathering down there."
That explanation seemed to make a fair amount of sense, really. It's how Eisen expected it went down, anyway. It was nice to have this sort of confirmation.
"Alright, then you should also be aware of why they're here. They're here to try and subjugate you." Eisen pointed out, and Aylrentyrth slightly chuckled, "I see, so you came here out of worry for me? That is quite kind of you, but there are no special people down there. I can take them quite easily. So your coming here was quite useless, if I can be so blunt."
"On the contrary." The old man said immediately and crossed his arms as he sat down on the ground cross-legged, "Listen, I have something to explain to you." Eisen started. And then, he proceeded to tell this Ancient Gold Dragon who has lived a few thousand years the truth of this world and the 'Artificials'. But it seemed like he didn't believe in the old man's words immediately.
"What are you even saying? Another world? A game? This is ridiculous, Eisen. Tell me why you are really-" Ailren exclaimed loudly, but was quickly interrupted by the old man who didn't want to have this sort of discussion. And so, he made use of one of the abilities he gained when he became a King.
"Silence." The old man said, his words supported by the 'Royal Authority' ability. It didn't work completely, of course, but it still made Ailren stop for a moment during which Eisen got the chance to start speaking again.
"Use your eyes, Ailren. You are a being that can see the absolute truth, so why are you running from it? You know exactly that I'm telling the truth, don't you?" Eisen said with a deep frown, "Those people out there, the Artificials, are quite literally immortal. They can wake up a few hours after being killed. And since to them, it is a 'game', they will hold a grudge toward the fact they've been killed by you. It might not be next week, or next month, but over and over again, the people you will have killed here will come back to return the favor. And at some point, you won't be able to fight back anymore."
For a few moments, Aylrentyrth stayed silent as he stared back at Eisen, and in the end just sighed out of annoyance and frustration, "I see. So you are speaking the truth after all... I can see the logic behind that, truthfully, but there is no reason to worry. If they come close to reaching my strength, I will simply travel to a new place to nest. It would be a shame, but it is not like I would not be ready to abandon this nest if I have to."
"You don't understand, Ailren. It's not just about you. If you go ahead and kill all of these people over and over again, they will start truthfully seeing you as evil. And when they see you as evil, the same will be the case with other metallic dragons. Instead, more people will join the side of the chromatic dragons, and it will completely jeopardise your possibility of success in this war."
Finally, it seemed like Ailren actually understood. With a bit of thought, he looked at the old man in front of him before just nodding his head, "I see... Then what do you ask of me? That I sacrifice myself for the greater good?" With those words, Ailren didn't even seem to be joking, which Eisen immediately picked up on.
"What? No! Obviously not! You don't have to do anything but appear and look strong and mighty after I tell you to. Put on a show of your strength. I will do the speaking and try to make sure to convince everyone that you're not a bad guy, alright? Well, I might pull some hostility toward myself while I'm at it, but it's mostly just a way to show my power. Artificials have a different view on me and others they acknowledge as 'people' anyway." Eisen pointed out, and Ailren leaned forward curiously, "I see. May I inquire about more parts of your plan?" The Ancient Gold Dragon asked, and Eisen just slightly chuckled in response.
He turned over toward Stahl and Evalia, "Those two will play a quite important part too. Well, Stahl has the hardest role, I'd say. I just have to hold a speech in my Draconic Demon King form and no matter what I say it will have some sort of impact. But Stahl has to convince as many people as he can to sign a document." The old man explained, and Stahl quickly rolled out the contract that they picked up from Komer before.
It was a special sort of contract. It had one 'Party A', and dozens of spaces for a collective 'Party B'. Eisen would be the 'Party A' in question, and the 'Party B' would obviously be made of artificials. Well, there was another version of this contract with slight changes in the 'penalty' section for the 'NPCs', but other than that, it really was the same. The contract for the artificials was one that would directly lead to the death of any member of 'Party B' in case of failure.