Chapter 207, 1/2

The morning dawned, and Erick was already hard at work in his workshop. It had been three days since his transformation. He and his overseers had sorted out quite a lot of problems that had cropped up during Erick’s convalescence, but problems came like summoned rain, and Erick was hard at work figuring out yet another major piece of infrastructure that needed to be solved.

He was not currently working on sorting dragons for conversion to Benevolence. Nor was he testing out his new body and finding all the limits of his new self. He was mostly done getting reacquainted with the new size and power of his magic, too, though sparks of power occasionally leaked out of him when he wasn’t in perfect control, or actively using his Benevolence-laden sunform. Leaving footprints of moss wherever he went was still a bit of a problem, but it was a solvable problem. He’d get the hang of himself, eventually!

One of the best ways of getting that handling was with precise magic, though, which was exactly what he was doing.

Erick had just finished his tenth [Zone of Peace] and [Spatial Denial] iron sphere. Once activated, it would lock into place with a bit of [Domain of Benevolent Light] and [Undertow Wall], preventing all other non-Domain magics from affecting it, as well as ensuring that it would remain stationary and powered, due to a 5-meter radius Draining field around the thing. All it needed to stay powered, practically forever, was about 3,000 mana per day. A pretty high price for an average person, but in aggregate, in the center of a city where hundreds of people could walk by and keep the thing powered, 3,000 mana a day shouldn’t be a problem. Such requirements of daily mana upkeeps were rather normal in the Gate Network, and fulfilling those requirements hadn’t been a problem so far.

Erick already saw the writing on the wall that it would not stay this easy, though.

He needed a full-city runic web, filled with [Renew], so that he and everyone else could power every single Gate’s continual upkeep cost from anywhere the [Renew] web lay. That was yet another piece of infrastructure that he needed to solve; to support everything a lot more easily, and to make something that anyone could tap into for power.

Like they did at Enduring Forge.

But that would come later, once Erick figured out how to make long lines of runic web power out of iron. He’d probably do, like, 5 meter long sections of sealed tubes, using his Denial Sphere design but adapted for length instead of effect. That way he could lay a bunch of them together in a line and they could share power through themselves, but also, if one section broke, he could replace that section.

… Complicated, though.

He could do the whole thing out of platinum right now if he really wanted to, but that was the easy, monumentally expensive solution, and people would steal that platinum, for sure. It’d be harder to steal iron tubular sections of a web, and a lot less profitable for the thief, therefore it was probably not something that most people would do.

People had already tried to steal Gates, though they never got very far at all with them.

But all of that was something to deal with later.

For now, Erick smiled. He had ten spheres ready, each of them able to Peace and Deny a roughly 10-kilometer-across slice of land, that extended up and down about 200 meters both above and below the ground. If the Denial Sphere got knocked out of position, tilting all of its magic at an angle, Erick had put in some more magic that would make the whole thing either slowly correct itself over the course of a day, or rapidly correct itself if it got an injection of a thousand mana.

Hopefully.

The tests had already proven it worked!

Erick smiled again, and then he went for a swim down below in the glowing waters surrounding radiant Yggdrasil.

Feeling great, Erick floated on his back, holding himself up with his power for he was too heavy these days to do anything but sink straight down. That was fine, though. He was comfortable as he gazed up at the veritable sky of ‘lightning’ made by Yggdrasil’s branches, and at the green world beyond, made of flaming leaves. He felt good. As the world outside his little slice of paradise began to brighten with the promise of day, Erick flickered, vanishing from his swim.

He reappeared at home, wrapped in robes.

Breakfast was a treat from the House; a small feast prepared by a 9 star Cook and their assistants. Pancakes. Two types of sausage. Eggs. A pile of potatoes. Juice. Erick made his own coffee, and then he sat down at his breakfast alcove and began eating.

He was done faster than he thought he should be.

And yet, his stomach still rumbled, demanding food. Sighing, Erick had an Ophiel go back for another bit of food, flitting through the breakfast line, waiting his turn to grab a small plate of sausages and pancakes again. Some of the other people in line smiled a bit at Ophiel; those people were new hires who didn’t quite know that this Ophiel was under the direct control of Erick. Others, who had worked there for a while now, or else they were simply better informed, looked to Ophiel with reverence. The person dishing out sausage gave a little bow, saying, ‘Welcome back, Wizard.’

Ophiel gave a little nod and then took off with his prize, leaving behind a few more people with a bit more knowledge of what to look for in an Ophiel, to understand that Erick himself was looking through all those bright white eyes.

When Ophiel reappeared at home, Erick took the plate and [Duplicate]d everything into a great big pile.

Finally, after eating enough for at least two orcols, his hunger pangs began to settle down.

He knew the problem.

It didn’t take a genius intellect to understand what was going on. Jane experienced much of the same thing when she started getting new Familiar Forms, and she and Erick had had a conversation on the topic many times. Different forms had different caloric requirements. Jane got by with her requirements by sometimes eating the monsters she killed. Thus, she was never really hungry. If she ate a whole lot her other forms were sated, too. But she could always eat. She was much more than just some normal girl from Earth; she was also a unicorn, a rivergrieve, a few types of spiders, and more. Her giant blue tarantula form had her eating like a giant blue tarantula would, whenever she could, and she was still able to eat fine in her human form.

And now Erick was a dragon.

Human quantities of food were great for enjoying a meal with other human-sized people. But he needed to eat.

Erick set down his fork, unsatisfied. He was technically full. The food was there, inside of him. But as he watched his organs and digestive tract go to work, as it had been working for a while now, he saw that food seem to dwindle; to vanish off into some other place. It was freaking weird, but no more weird than everything else that had happened to him.

Poi finally came out on the porch, carrying his own small tray of food. “You could have copied our food.”

“Yeah. But… Thought about it. Decided it felt weird to copy other people’s food.”

Poi sat down. “Dragons are mostly carnivores, too, so you need to eat a lot more meat now.”

“That was one thing I was hoping to avoid.”

Poi instantly knew what to do. “Go grab the biggest scarlet king fish you can find at Treehome, kill it, copy it a hundred times inside a [Prismatic Ward], and then eat all of those crunchy meaty morsels. Leave the bones in, too. Dragons don’t actually need to eat every single day, so you might only need to do that once a week. Less, if you’re not in your dragon form that often.” Poi added, “And enjoy it. That’s like… pure decadence.”

“Ha! You’ve been saving that for a while now! How long?”

“All my life, actually. You have no idea how much dragons enjoy food, but you will.”

Erick chuckled. “Leave the bones in, eh?”

“A texture enhancer.” Poi said, “Fermented and fried silver minnows make a great sandwich filling for that exact reason. I have tried to replicate what I have overheard in the experiences of others through fried minnows, but it cannot be the same at all. And with scarlet king, you don’t have to ferment or fry them at all to make them palatable. I can only imagine how good eating a room full of that would feel, so you should go do that so I could live vicariously through you.”

Erick laughed again.

Poi added, “And you don’t want to be hangry when you get to all those dragon meetings today, right?”

“No; I suppose I do not.”

“You should go get a scarlet king and make a copy for us to have for dinner, too.”

Erick chuckled again. “Sir yes sir! Heard and understood.”

Poi smiled a little, then got back to his own breakfast, though his eyes were on the sky. He was already looking forward to some fresh scarlet king tonight.

“I am! It’s gonna be so good.”

While grinning and still sitting at the breakfast nook, Erick sent an Ophiel through a [Gate] to Yggdrasil at Treehome.

The big guy was very, very big up here on the edge of the Forest. Bigger than any of his other forms in any other location. Yggdrasil stood like a monkeypod tree above a field of small bushes, his glowing white arms and greenery and rainbow crown spreading out like a thunderhead cloud made of green fire.

But those ‘small bushes’ down below, which didn’t even reach a third of the way to Yggdrasil’s lowest branches, were each a kilometer tall on their own. Yggdrasil was big, and growing every day.

Yggdrasil instantly noticed that Ophiel and Erick were directly near him.

A large [Scry] eye appeared and Yggdrasil said, “Hello father!”

Erick smiled, still sitting on his seat at Candlepoint. “Looking for a scarlet king, Yggdrasil. Can you find a nice eating one for me?”

“There’s some right down here!”

Yggdrasil’s eye zipped through the sky, and Erick followed with Ophiel. As the other various [Scry] eyes of the Arbors of Treehome found their way back to Yggdrasil and Ophiel (and Erick), Erick bowed a bit to them, and they bobbed up and down in turn.

And then the Arbors started asking what he was doing here.

“In search of a scarlet king for breakfast!” Erick said.

And then Wyrmrest asked, “No. Really. What are you doing here?”

O’kabil interjected, “What he means to say is that we heard about the dragons and are worried that there will be a fight in our vicinity. If there is, could you help us stop it?”

“I’m currently on the lookout for those events myself, and will be [Reincarnation]ing a lot of dragons in the coming days. I’ll have my hands full in my own part of the world, so I probably won’t be able to help here.” Erick said, “And that said, I really am just here for a good scarlet king—”

Yggdrasil complained, “Father! Father! Follow me! I found them!”

O’kabil’s eye flew forward with Yggdrasil saying, “You don’t want those ones, Erick. Those are the breeding ones. Yggdrasil? Can you show us the fast ones?”

Yggdrasil looked to Ophiel. “But? They’re still scarlet kings?”

“Show me the fast ones, Yggdrasil.” Erick said, “The ones that are bright red and really fast, like rubies flying under the water.”

“Okay!” And then Yggdrasil took off in another direction. In moments, Ophiel plunged down into the massive lake surrounding Yggdrasil, turning to [Perfected Benevolence] to evade the water resistance. Yggdrasil’s voice called out, “This way! I see them!”

One very quick chase later, Erick had a very large scarlet king wrapped in lightning-light. One quick pulse of power killed it. He sent the fish home, but he stayed for a little bit longer to talk to the Arbors, giving some more assurances that he was on the dragon case, but that he could not actually assist Treehome with their own defenses. They seemed mollified.

Erick’s stomach was already rumbling.

Erick got up, leaving Poi behind, saying, “Your fish is already in the cold room, sir.”

“Oh gods, it’s gonna be so good. Oh man.” Poi got up, too, saying, “I have to go see it.”

Erick smiled.

- - - -

In a Privacy atop Yggdrasil, Erick unfurled himself—

It was like sinus congestion finally ending, like the opening of a stuffy house and an overpacked suitcase breaking at the seams and a dam finally breaking and flooding dry land, bringing forth life from the lifeless. As Erick settled, his happy tail whipped back and forth. His wings flapped behind him. His perspective shifted, and now he was a good 25 meters higher than where he had been before, but he was still where he had been, because now he was in both places.

He was also about 40ish meters behind himself, with his tail being rather long.

And also about that much off to the sides, with his wings flicking out on their own accord, until Erick got them under control once again. The switch between forms was still disorienting, but Erick supposed he would get a better hang on this eventually; this was only his second time, after all. Maybe not as quickly as he needed to, for this form carried a lot of connotations that would turn the public against him rather harshly…

Erick could survive that turning, probably, but there was no need to risk it right now, and probably not for a while. Years? Sure. Years. Candlepoint could probably handle Erick’s new self, too, but there was no need to go stressing all those still-building relationships, either.

Anyway!

He took a measuring stick with him for today’s transformation, so he could get a better idea of how big he was, and for ensuring that he was the proper size when he was finished. According to that stick, which hovered in the air, while Erick also sat on his haunches in the air, he was about 8 meters of neck, 16 meters of body, 20-ish meters of tail (though that was hard to measure directly because it would not stop wagging (did he have two brains in this body? Did another part of him control the tail, like a dinosaur? Answer: no. Dragons were magic and did not care about such things like ‘the transmission rate of nerves’ (probably) (he didn’t even have extra hearts!))), and a good 25ish meters of wings on both sides of himself.

His wings had little grabby hands on the front, like a bat’s. This made sense, since his wings were basically arms, and the ‘hand part’ was basically that grabby, main joint, giving him four fingers with which to grab with, while his ‘pinkies’ were much larger than the pinky fingers on a human, for those ‘fingers’ form the leading edge of his wings, extending all the way out to the tips of his wing-arms.

Erick looked at his chest, trying to understand how all those bones and muscles fit together. This was easy enough, even with all those massive muscles allowing for his second pair of ‘arms’ that were his wings. It was like he had pecs on pecs on shoulders, which was kinda funny—

His stomach rumbled, both like a minor disturbance, but also like a minor avalanche, if Erick was to consider his human-sized senses. Less focusing on form; more focusing on needs.

Yes.

Erick looked at his ‘prey’, hovering inside of his lightgrip like a fish-shaped ruby with a tiny dot of dark at its head where Erick had killed the thing. He leaned in and gave it a sniff—

A sudden well of wetness filled his mouth and he almost snapped up the fish that instant, but he controlled himself…

The scarlet king, which had looked huge when Erick was human-sized, at being about a meter long, now looked like it could barely serve as an appetizer, for Erick was ravenously hungry—

Ah. Yeah. He was hungry. Very hungry, and almost willing to eat that fish long before he was ready to eat that fish. He recognized that now.

A little worrying, that. He wanted to eat that fish quite a lot. But instead, he opened his mouth and had a look at himself through his mana sense. His mouth was filled with glowing white teeth and his gullet was a white hole. All of his interior looked white and glowing, though he only guessed it was white, for it was hard to tell color through mana sense.

Looking at his mouth again…

It didn’t look like he could really chew or taste his food; not with fangs and no molars, and with a tongue that was basically a tendril of taste receptors the size of one of his larger fangs…

Wait a second.

Erick looked inside of himself again.

No vocal cords?

So how was he able to speak?

Erick said, “Testing. Testing.”

His insides justvibrated that way, eh? Based on his desires?

“Testing, testing. I am the very model of a modern major general. I don’t believe in animals, or vegetables, or minerals.”

Did the original lyrics go like that? Erick had no idea. He had heard Jane say something like that when she was a kid, and it had stuck with him all these years later.

And yes; his insides did just vibrate that way allowing him to talk.

—He wasn’t breathing? Oh. Yeah. He wasn’t breathing.

Erick purposefully breathed in and out—

A small burst of streaming clouds and lightning flashed out like a burp from a demigod, before Erick realized what he had done and shut his mouth. Glowing white mist continued out of his nostrils like steam from a kettle, flickering with sparks all the while.

Erick focused on what had just happened.

A few more tests later revealed that he did not actually need to breathe at all, or at least not while he was running his [Perfected Benevolence]. Erick held onto one of Yggdrasil’s bigger branches, securing himself to a solid surface so he wouldn’t fall when he turned off his aura. And then he did so. With his lightning turned off, he did have to breathe, and it sounded rather menacing.

Ophiel instantly tried to replicate that sound.

Three Ophiel working together were able to get the deep bass and the rumbling drums worked out enough to approximate Erick’s natural breathing sounds. Kinda cute, in a horrifying sort of way.

But back to his breathing. With his aura, he didn’t really need to ‘breathe’. Like with Jane’s shadow spider form that could not exist on its own without using its aura to breathe, Erick’s dragon form’s ‘breathing’ was best done through a constant, low level Elemental Body. That low level functionality got turned up really high for dragons, though.

When Erick purposefully breathed in and then out while running his aura, a massive cloud bank of bright white Benevolence billowed outward across Yggdrasil’s branches, leaving patches of greenery wherever it landed. Mostly just more moss, up here at the top of Yggdrasil, but a few flowers and ferns, too—

Yggdrasil giggled like a child, telling him that it tickled, and then to do it again. Erick happily obliged, sending Yggdrasil into a ticklish fit as sparking light caused vines and greenery to grow everywhere, and the happy laughs of a child sent rainbows scattering across Yggdrasil’s crown. And then he said that was enough, so Erick stopped, smiling wide—

Oh. That’s a menacing smile.

Yggdrasil turned his attention back to Treehome.

Erick turned his attention back to what he came here for.

Time for breakfast. Erick looked back to his scarlet king, waiting to be eaten. His mouth salivated again, his tongue licking out, tasting the air— which was apparently something he could do now. Dragons were part snake. So that was fun. The air tasted delicious.

At least his dripping saliva didn’t cause more random growth wherever it touched Yggdrasil’s bark. That would have boded badly for the rest of what his body could do. Erick imagined pissing out flowers. Uncomfortable, for sure.

Hopefully this dragon form didn’t need to go to the bathroom more than once a week, too, but Erick supposed he would get used to that eventually, if he had to. Humans could adapt to a lot, and… Well. He had already adapted rather far from ‘human’.

… Erick looked at the other parts of his draconic body that he had been ignoring. He would get to that part of himself too, eventually, but not today.

Erick had an Ophiel cast another small [Prismatic Ward] around the still-floating scarlet king, and then Erick copied it. Just like when metals were [Duplicate]ed inside [Prismatic Ward], becoming magical metals, copying meat and vegetables and other things had the same effects on those other things.

One magical meat fish became two magical meat fish.

Erick floated the second one up to himself. He opened his mouth.

He took a tiny nibble—

“OH GODS IT’S SO GOOD!”

Erick rapidly copied all the fish he wanted, eating all he could, the fatty, thick meat seeming to dissolve in his mouth like bits of cream, but sprinkled all throughout with flakes of crispy skin and bones as easily broken as the surface of a crème brule. He tasted it all the way down his throat, too, so that was an experience. The fish skulls were actually the best part; like finding a bit of carrot in a soup of deliciousness.

Erick finally felt full after around a hundred fish. Maybe a bit more. He wasn’t quite sure.

But he was sure that he loved every second of that experience, and now his stomach was finally full. That was the best part of all this. Being a full dragon. Wow. It kinda reminded Erick of being a kid at Thanksgiving and being allowed to eat everything he wanted to, and then feeling like everything would be alright, right before he slipped into a wonderful food coma.

No food coma today, though.

Erick kept himself awake.

The sun hovered right above the eastern horizon. Erick had taken only about half an hour to do all this. Next time, he would put himself in a time bubble too and truly take his time.

Cleaning up was easy, since there was no cleanup necessary at all. Putting himself back into his human body did take some doing, though, now that he wasn’t some sort of starving dragon; he was full and happy and his body did not like being crushed back into its tiny little Erick-shaped box. The horns were especially annoying this time.

But it had been worth it.

When Erick got back home he went to Poi, to tell him how it was. He didn’t need to, though. Poi saw it on Erick’s face, and smiled wide.

“That’s amazing, Erick,” Poi grinned, lost in a shared moment. “That’s good.”

Erick smiled. “That was so good.”

Teressa, who was at the breakfast nook along with Poi and Kiri, asked, “What’s good?”

Erick told them.

Teressa and Kiri didn’t seem to get what was so special about it all, but that was fine. They were happy that Erick was happy.

Kiri did seem to get this look in her eyes that she was playing off her nonchalance, though. She was intrigued about the idea of becoming a dragon herself. Erick decided that he would probably deny her if she ever truly asked, but that was probably his own reluctance talking. Maybe in fifty years, or something.

It was probably a good idea to not transform any people into Benevolence dragons if he could help it, but that ship had sailed. At least two other dragons in today’s meetings were getting the Benevolence treatment. Erick had decided that much already.

- - - -

In a very large room in the middle of nowhere, and also partially in Fairy thanks to [Fairy Stronghold], Erick waited. The room was nothing special; basically a hundred meter cube with the walls made of glass and the floor made of solid stone. The sun shone brightly outside those windows, illuminating the vast desert of the Crystal Forest.

This part of the Crystal Forest was filled with dunes and not much else. Even the crystal mimics in this land were few and far between. There was a flight of sand rays nestling out there under the deeper dunes, but unless something startled them, then they were going to stay there. A few flying fish above the dunes were the only thing that was even really noticeable out there—

Poi’s voice came to Erick, ‘He’s ready.’

Erick acknowledged Poi and then gazed out through Ophiel, looking to the appointed spot. On a random dune also in the middle of nowhere, stood Al. The sewermaster of Spur looked the same as he always did, but with an air of pure nerves surrounding him and wearing plain clothes that were obvious conjurings. He was prepared to lose them to violence, or otherwise. His eyes glanced left and right. He breathed shallowly. His fists clenched.

And then Ophiel appeared in front of him, and Al froze.

Al thawed quick enough, forcing himself to calm. He nodded.

Ophiel chirped and then fluttered onto Al’s shoulder, outside of Erick’s control and way before he could actually stop the little guy and make it even more awkward. Al just looked at Ophiel, raising an eyebrow.

… Erick had Ophiel open a [Gate] into this space.

Suddenly, a circle of lightning held between Erick and Al, and both of them were prepared for the worst. Erick had been around other dragons since his own transformation, with Burhendurur and Volaro, but this was the first time he was meeting a dragon who held the Curse.

Neither of them flinched at the sight of each other, though, so that was good. Erick didn’t expect to flinch, and neither did Al, for they had coordinated what was going to happen here a day ago. If anything was going to happen, it would have happened then—

Erick was delaying. He stepped back, saying, “Come on in, Al.”

Al was delaying too, it seemed, for he did not come in right away. He was scared.

Erick let him take his time.

The sun beat down. The northern winds blew a bit of sand into the [Fairy Stronghold]. And Al closed his eyes for a long moment. And then he opened his eyes, and they were full black. He sighed, and changed. Not physically. Not in body. But in countenance and everything else.

He strode forward, his long orcol legs easily bringing him inside the room, where he towered over Erick by a full meter. He did not loom, though. He just towered, for that was his nature.

Erick closed the portal.

They were alone in the middle of a hundred meter cube of [Fairy Stronghold], with the desert on display everywhere around them.

Erick asked, “This will work, but if you are nervous, we can do this another time?”

“A dragon does not ‘get nervous’, Erick. They either do, or they do not.” Al said, “And I am prepared. I would like to confirm you are an actual dragon, though, and to know what I am in for, as every dragon is different. May I see your [Dragon Body] now?”

They had already agreed to this exchange on Al’s request, and Erick agreed because he didn’t know much about the mechanics of dragons, so he was glad to finally see someone else’s dragon box. Erick had contemplated asking Volaro and Burhendurur, but that had seemed wrong. Al’s was much more palatable.

But Al was nervous.

So Erick tried a joke to defuse the situation, “You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”

Al was not here for jokes. He pulled out his blue box instantly.

Dragon Body, Permanently Active, 0 mana

, , , ,

Assume a draconic form based on your nature, at will, gaining .

Assume a new Familiar Form of any type you have experience with, at will.

Immortal.

Different from Erick’s, for sure.

Huh.

Erick handed his own over, saying, “I guess all dragons are products of their own accretion?”

Greater Dragon Body, Permanently Active, 0 mana

, , ,

Assume a greater draconic form based on your nature, at will, gaining .

Assume a new Familiar Form of any type you have experience with, at will.

Immortal.

Al looked at the box and sighed. “You even have [Greater Dragon Body].” Al took the box and visibly broke it, to show that he was not saving it into his own Status. Al had been very clear about that requirement to this exchange; it was a cultural thing, a show of respect, and acknowledgment that nothing said in this exchange of information could be handed over to another. Of course, someone could just lie, and verbally hand off this very personal information anyway, but that was dishonorable and not lightly done. Immortals had long memories, after all. “I assume the smaller version that I would actually get is different?”

Erick handed over the box for his normal [Dragon Body], though he had to go looking through his notifications to find it. “250 absolute damage reduction instead of 500.” As he visibly broke the box Al gave him, he asked, “Do you think the others will react oddly when I pull out the Greater version? I wasn’t sure about that. You’re actually my test case for all of this, Al, because I’m pretty sure I know how you’re taking this.”

Al narrowed his eyes a little bit on Erick as he glanced at the new blue box. “I don’t think you know how I’m taking this at all, but whatever guesses you have inside your head are likely near enough the mark to count as true.” He broke the blue box, then said, “If I were you I would have already demanded every [Dragon Body] box from every dragon you have working for you. It’s rude, but you are in power there, and they are not your equals at all.”

Erick felt a small sadness in his heart. “Does that mean you don’t want to come work for me after this?”

“No.” Al said, “Silverite has treated me too well for me to abandon her like that. Savral is in Spur. Spur is my home. I’m not moving if I don’t have to. Are you demanding I move to Candlepoint to fulfill this Benevolencing?”

“… I will not demand this of you, Al—”

He paused.

Erick said, “Actually. I do demand that you not be a stranger. Visit the Gate District when you want. Shop at Candlepoint. Eat at the atrium in the House and enjoy food from all over the world, cooked by 7, 8, 9, and even one 10 star Cook. Come on by sometime and tell me what it means to be a dragon. Go places and do things, for you will have a full life available to you now. You will never have to worry about meeting another dragon and having a fight after today, okay? You can live again. Maybe for the first time in your life.”

Al almost objected when Erick started, but he listened, and he relaxed. He gulped as emotions ran through his chest and changed all of him, again. He still stood strong, but instead of acting like a solid stone to weather the storm, he read more like a man on the edge of a cliff.

A man who could fly, if he wanted to.

With softer eyes, Al nodded. His voice broke as he said, “I can do— I can do that.”

Erick smiled brightly. “So? Do you need to be naked for this? A dragon? I’m not reciprocating and turning into a dragon by the way; that’s way too odd for me right now.”

Al chuckled, then laughed loud. He breathed deep, and said, “I’m going to be a dragon.”

Erick felt he might have blinked, and maybe he did. For in that moment the world changed, filling with black and a bit of shattered black magic that fell to the ground, dissipating in sparkles. Those sparkles had been Al’s clothes.

Like a wall of scales encircling all of Erick, about ten meters out in every direction, lay Al, the dragon. He was a 40 meter long serpent, twisted around on himself, with his head and front body looking down at Erick, from about five meters away.

Erick looked up. “Hello, Al.”

With the same voice as always, but a bit deeper, Al said, “Alenzikaron, if you wish to know my full, real name. The last name of ‘Noraki’ is a part of ‘Al’s’ identity, but you can still call me ‘Al’ if you desire.”

Erick smiled wide. “It’s good to finally meet you, Alenzikaron.”

Al smiled a little, and Erick found he was not scared at all.

Alenzikaron said, “It would be good to meet with your real form later. Perhaps you can think up your real name by then? It is okay to take your time with that sort of thing, for it took me forty years to figure out ‘Alenzikaron’ and… Ah. Bollocks. I am stalling.” With full-black eyes and curving back horns, and a mouth that held white teeth, but which still looked rather normal with common-sized fangs and red gums, Al leaned down a bit, asking, “Do you think my coloring will change?”

There was real concern in that question.

Erick tried not to laugh at the incongruity of this giant being asking about something as simple as color, but then again, Erick was rather concerned over his own dragon color… Could he just change it? Yes, through illusions, but then [True Sight] could see him for what he was, and that wasn’t a real solution at all. But he hadn’t even considered changing his colors from Melemizargo’s colors until now, and yet, he found the prospect rather…

Unwelcome.

Erick liked his coloring.

Odd.

Erick could even justify why his coloring was already perfect. Benevolence tangled black, and Erick was black, because he was a tangle of Benevolence. That his eyes and other parts of him were white, were just because they were representative of the sparks of his Benevolence. His entire body naturally sparked and glowed white when he was a dragon, too, so that all made a whole lot of sense to him.

Huh.

With empathy, Erick said, “Maybe you’ll turn grey or silver, or maybe full white. I am sorry to say that I doubt you will remain black. Whenever anyone is [Reincarnation]’d their magic lightens. What I will be doing today is not a [Reincarnation], but it’s… It changes the very nature of your soul. The alignment, mostly. That shift will change your color, and you’re the first recipient. I cannot tell you how you will end up. Not exactly.”

Al pulled back in subtle worry. Then he said, “I can change my color back eventually… Probably.” And then he looked to Erick. “Your Benevolence [Dragon Body] is barebones, Erick. A high absolute damage reduction is nice, but a constant [Defend] effect, like what I have, would do you well; those two forms of spellwork are beautiful together. You need to accrete properly. Not just accept what was made of you.”

“I already have Constitution and that’s 95% damage reduction.” Erick said, “Anything below 20,000 damage won’t leave a scratch.”

“… Right. You are crazy. I forgot that for half a second. Absolute damage reduction is best for you.” Alenzikaron reared back, breathed deep, and then settled back down, laying his head down on the ground before Erick. “I am ready.” He closed his eyes.

Erick approached.

Warm breath blew out from Alenzikaron’s nostrils, as his whiskers twitched and his eyes moved under his eyelids. And then he felt Erick get near, and he forced his whiskers to the ground, and his eyes to stillness. His breath evened.

Erick touched his nose.

Alenzikaron’s black scales were hard and dry, but smooth like obsidian stone. All of him looked like that. He’d never look like that again, though. Erick knew that Al would change, and Al was lying to himself thinking he could ever change back. But Al knew that already, so Erick said nothing. Everything that had needed to be said had already been said...

“This might hurt,” Erick said.

“I know,” Alenzikaron answered.

Erick cast.

White lightning danced out from Erick like the ripping of a world, tearing into Al, ripping away scales like the prying of gems from a statue. Al did not move. He did not scream.

Erick jumped away, worried about everything.

And then Al lifted his head, and lightning continued to rip him apart, prying off scales and scattering dark red blood to the ground. The spell rapidly broke through all of Alenzikaron’s body, and he became a coiled conflagration of white lightning, ripping and tearing at all of him. His breath came out like sand, and then as white sparks. He grumbled, muttering about how it was slightly worse than he thought it would be, but that he could handle it. That calmed Erick a fraction, but not really at all—

Lightning blew out a four meter section of Alenzikaron’s side, scattering gore across the ground, splashing blood on Erick.

Al roared at that, but still, he endured.

Only ten seconds had passed and Erick was near his panicking limit, preparing himself to sing to the mana and take direct control of Alenzikaron’s transformation—

But then Alenzikaron’s wound healed in a flashing instant.

Silver scales replaced black. Al sighed in partial relief, and then he grunted again as his body was remade from the inside out, grunting about how the worst of it was over, and that he saw the problem. All his old body was the problem; it wasn’t him anymore. He was trapped and he needed to transform.

“I could use some proper healing magic help, Erick,” Al managed to grunt, at three minutes into his ordeal. “Any at all. My [Dragon Body] is already changed to yours.”

Erick obliged, having his Ophiel flood the mostly-black, partially silver dragon with Healing spells. Everywhere Ophiel touched with [Greater Treat Wounds] caused an eruption of black scales and muscle and gore that rapidly transformed into healed flesh and silver scales.

Erick watched as the room filled with the death of a black dragon.

And a pure silver dragon rose in its wake.

Ten minutes after starting the process, Alenzikaron stood up from the remains of his former body and floated in the air on flickers of Benevolence lightning. His eyes were black and silver.

He looked beautiful.

Alenzikaron looked at himself a bit, too, and he seemed okay with all of that.

And Erick said, “Well holy fucks and shits. I was not expecting that. You good, Alenzikaron?”

Alenzikaron smiled. “Yes… Yes, Erick. I am good. I feel…” He looked up at the endless sky above the room. “I feel I need to go for a fly. I haven’t done that in… Since I was a very stupid kid who didn’t realize what chaos he was going to cause. Maybe I will refrain from that.”

Erick joked, “Just don’t go taking over any cities out there, okay? We Benevolence dragons need to be better than that.”

It was not much of a joke, for that was exactly what Erick did not want to happen.

Alenzikaron looked back to Erick, saying, “I know. I would never besmirch this honor…” He paused, and then he flickered.

He was once again Al, the orcol, but this time he was standing on a pile of his own former self, and he was very nude. He didn’t seem to mind.

Neither did Erick, really.

Al said, “I’m going to go back to Spur and I would like to visit later, if that is alright? When you’re done with the day’s events? Or maybe tomorrow if you’re too busy today.”

Erick smiled. “I’d like that.” And then he added, “But. Uh. Yeah. I might be too busy today.”

Al gestured at his corpse, saying, “This thing is good for enchanting with, if you want it. I’m done with it, though.”

Erick laughed loudly. “That’s weird, Al!”

“What! Not that weird at all.” Al toed at a large patch of black scales, sending the top one tumbling down into blood. “I’ve used some of my own scales for enchanting sometimes myself. But! It’s your call. I’m done with them. I thought for a second that I would want to keep it, when I knew what was happening but… It’s useful, and yet I do not want it. So. See you later.” And then he put on some conjured clothes and blipped away in a flash of silver light.

Erick continued to smile a little.

And then he frowned, looking down at himself.

“Stop that,” Erick said to himself, “That’s nothing to get excited over. He’s just… Coming over eventually.” Erick looked over at the mess all around him. “And that’s certainly not exciting, right?” His temporary problem went down again, and Erick felt relief at that. “Good. I’m not turning into some sort of weirdo. Good.”

Erick began cleaning up the mess, but funnily enough, [Cleanse] left behind every single one of Al’s scales and every single one of his discarded bones, and horns, and fangs. They were highly useful items, according to the Script. So Erick pushed all of those into a pile, and then he [Gate]d them to his warehouse back on Yggdrasil, slotting them into a large bin the size of a dumpster. That bin went into a corner of the warehouse, surrounded by a quick [Preservation Ward], and there it sat. Erick had no idea what to do with them, but for some reason keeping them around did seem like a good idea.

And then he swept the manasphere of the room in the desert with a [Sealed Privacy Ward], destroying all [Witness]able history in the space. There were several more of these [Fairy Stronghold] setups located around the Crystal Forest, so Erick could do this same procedure for at least one more dragon, and maybe more, but he would not be using this one again. He canceled the [Fairy Stronghold], falling back into real space, but not onto the ground. Floating in his sunform, it was time to move on.

There were dangers to avert.

- - - -

The meeting with Zenipeq was the only meeting, aside from Al, which had a good chance to produce another Benevolence dragon. Erick had spoken with Zolan at length about what to expect and who Zenipeq was, which made Erick more and more secure in his decision, and Zolan increasingly worried about Erick’s responses to the dangers of this world.

In Erick’s office, Zolan tried to get him to change his mind again.

“King Flatt. Erick,” Zolan said, because Erick had told him to call him by his first name a week ago, though the man had yet to use Erick’s first name all that much, and only when they were alone. “Necromancy destroys every soul it touches. It is only by pure force of will and highly nuanced magics that fail all the time that these liches retain any semblance of propriety or morals at all.”

Erick said, “Yes. I understand that. But Zolan. You said yourself that Frostflower is about the only decent Fractured Citadel, and that they are a bulwark against the expansion of Death Throne, and a place for mortals to sometimes rest. On the whole, the Fractured Citadels only ever expand or contract against the forces of the oozes of Quintlan, and against each other. They almost never send anyone outside their borders to any other lands, and they only ever fight defensive wars, which they win, all the time. They could flood the world with undeath, but they haven’t, and yes, that’s because of all the other forces out here that also only fight defensive wars. But if Frostflower loses their main source of power, they will be subsumed by all the other Fractured Citadels. That’s a lot of dead mortals.”

“I also said that mortals are considered trash over there! The ones who displease their masters are turned into golems, or turned into magic items. Zenipeq is a tyrant dragolich who is completely closed off to negotiations with the rest of the world.”

“Okay well.” Erick said his final thoughts on the subject, “I mostly know what a Benevolencing will do to a dragon. Therefore, I will do this Benevolencing to Zenipeq and all the world would be better for it. So let’s talk more about what we want to happen afterward; what sort of concessions and openness we want from Frostflower, or whatever. If this doesn’t work, I want it to be on her, Zolan. Not because of us. That’s not the kind of nation I want to be.”

Zolan breathed out, his eyes flickering back and forth in thought. He looked up for a while. Then he looked at Erick, and said, “Okay. For a start, we need to demand that they cease the production of magical items out of criminals, and that they adopt Common International Law, at least. The Fractured Citadels have never gone that far in joining the rest of civilization, and maybe if they do… I hope this works, Erick, because I really don’t think it will.”

Erick smiled softly, and said, “So Common International Law, and the cessation of criminal souls into items. Both are good. What else?”

Zolan began with, “We’ll have to throw out a few Platforms we’re willing to abandon, like...”