[Job] Rose of Giltena (Akeya/Leila Vergious)

Job Details:

Reptilian eyes widened as they spotted the shape of land in the distance. The dragon had been flying over the oceans for a while now, crossing the wide swath of water that separated the continent of Ishgar from the continent of Giltena. While it was long enough a distance that it should take days to reach the other side of the ocean a creature with wings could cross that distance a lot faster. Akeya would be damned if a dragon was beaten by a bird in terms of long distance travelling. She was several times their size so if they beat her in this that would mean she wasn't just a little bit slower, she would proportionally be several times slower.

Competitive nature aside, she had finally reached the other side. It was the first time that she visited this continent as well, so she was curious what she would find here. From what she had been told this was a continent where magic was so densely concentrated that it could crystallize and fall out of the sky like snow. While that sounded like something belonging in a fable stranger things had happened and if it was true it would be a very interesting phenomenon to study. For a dragon like Akeya it would also be of great comfort given that dragons were creatures of magic. It was like oxygen, although dragons could survive in areas with no magic in the atmosphere (although anti-magic zones were distinctly uncomfortable).

Aside from that there were supposed to be a lot of creatures here that one couldn't find on Ishgar. While she didn't have much information on what kind of creatures those might be she was prepared for a lot of strange things, and was hoping she'd get to see some of them. Would they be completely unrelated or would there be obvious similarities? Since they evolved in the presence of such heavy concentrations of mana it must have given birth to unusual lifeforms, things which might be impossible in other places. Animals who had floating body parts, for example. Creatures with a linked consciousness (well, those also existed outside of Giltena, but usually those were artificial or came from one of those magical dimensions).

Although before research there was a more important reason for her being here: Leila had asked for her help. She was somewhat surprised that the goddess would be asking a dragon for aid, but she wasn't going to say no. It might be because Leila wasn't a smaller species like a human but Akeya found herself actually appreciating the company of the goddess, and beyond that the silver-haired girl had been a very good partner on missions so far so it was only reasonable that she'd see if she could help out if there was another mission. Not that she knew what Leila needed help with: the message had only told her that she would have to come to Gilneta and that it wasn't something many people could help with. That last part was definitely curious, but it didn't exactly explain why.

Aiming downwards she entered a slow descent, scanning the landmass before her for any signs of civilization. Unless she had completely flown off course there was supposed to be a landmark in the form of a circle of boulders reminiscent of stone teeth. Nearby there would be a stone hill with a cave and further into the distance a forest, although according to the directions given rather than your normal trees it would be a forest with glowing veins on the trunk and glowing droplets of the same hue dropping from the branches where there would normally be leafs. That was definitely a sign of magic having a strong influence on the world, and it also served as a good landmark.

It didn't take long before she spotted the forest of rainleafs, after which it didn't take much longer to find the stone hill and the circle of monolithic teeth. Instead of landing in the middle of the structure Akeya spiralled down and landed on the ground about a mile away, then turned back into her humanoid form so she could walk towards the place without standing out like a sore thumb. That might make it easier for Leila to sense her arrival, but it would also make it a lot easier for any potential hostiles in the area. Leila was a goddess with sharp sensory abilities, so even with Akeya in her humanoid form and walking towards the meeting location she should have no trouble picking up on the dragoness's arrival.

As she walked Akeya took in the surrounding sights. However she constantly found her gaze drawn back towards the ring of stone teeth, her eyes narrowing as she began to become suspicious. For some reason that place felt like it wasn't natural, and not entirely harmless. Why had Leila chosen that place? Was it a trap? The assassin stopped walking for a moment before shaking her head and moving on. If Leila wanted to trap her she didn't need to drag Akeya all the way to Giltena. As much as the proud dragoness didn't want to admit it her goddess friend was strong enough that if she really wanted to capture her she would just need to call her to any isolated place and do it forcefully. The odds that this was a trap for Akeya from Leila were low.

Didn't mean that there couldn't be anything else lying in wait though. While Akeya was on guard she didn't turn into either light or dark. Instead she focused on sharpening her senses as far as she could, ears sticking out and her eyes scanning everything as she prepared herself. If there was a trap she wanted to trigger it and then get whoever laid it, and otherwise she wanted to quickly find Leila and figure out what the deal was here.

"What is going on that she would need me to come here of all places? Why did she need to come here to begin with?" She muttered under her breath, so softly that she doubted anyone a meter away could have heard it.

WC: 1,030
TWC: 1,030/12,500

“OooOoOoOoh! I can see it! It’s gonna be landing, get ready Lei-Lei!” An overwhelmingly excited voice called out to the silver-haired girl seemingly out of nowhere, slightly disrupting the goddess’ meditation. “The dragon is landing!” It belonged to a young blonde girl who wore a very witch-like attire. This was Megumi, one of  Leila’s companions. But how exactly did things get to this point? Well, the answer lied in only the last few days, which were a bit rough for the goddess to say the least.

Simply thinking back to that fateful day when she touched the crystallized dragon heart in her room sent shivers down her spine again. She knew that it was a gift from the Rose dragon, that it was willing… but the way it all went down, it was still a bit confusing and frankly, disturbing. After all, the Rose dragon had given her its own heart, crystallized with its own magic as a gift. The last one it could give before succumbing to its wounds. And now that crystal heart was part of her very self. She was a part dragon now…

The voice of Megumi resonated through her skull, almost forcing her to bring those slender arms to her ears in order to cover them. Even the most subtle of noises were so present in the world for her now, a loud voice like that comparable to a thunderous raging storm. It all amounted to her simply not being adjusted to her new magic self and the advantages it brought along. Her senses were now considerably more powerful than ever before. But at the very least, this place was calming for her. At least so far, anyway.

After acquiring the magic of a Rose dragon, Leila had started hearing a strange melody, almost as if ever-present in her own mind. A song that was calling for her. Unable to bear it any longer, she had followed the tune all the way across the ocean and to this continent, not visited by people of Isgar very often. In fact, she had found that this landmass was much more desolate of human-like life in general. Yes, there was an occasional city or hamlet, villages even. But they were spread much further apart than one would see in Fiore or any other country near it.

Not that any of that was of interest to her. No, the melody had led her to a distant ancient ground, a monastery of some kind. There she had met a cult of sorts. Followers of the Rose. Mages and non-mages who followed the Rose Dragon from ancient times. The song was their call for their masters who had long gone, targeting specifically their beings. As such, the newly absorbed power of a Rose dragon within the girl’s body allowed her to hear the song as well. And after leading her here, well… things only got stranger.

Unfortunately, they were also able to provide little in terms of understanding these new powers and how to deal with them. After all, none of them actually knew dragon magic. They were all followers who focused on some sort of nature-related magic, but that was about it, really. And for what appeared to be a true cult, they were… very welcoming, hospitable and above all - understanding of what had happened. Silencing the song and once again having some peace for herself, Leila decided to call for those who she knew she could either trust or would know about her newly found powers.

Megumi Tireheart, the slime witch. She had departed from Ishgar along with Leila’s father a good while ago. Since her father was a great explorer, he wanted to see the wonders of Giltena as well. Megumi followed him in hopes of being able to further her slime research along the way. While father was not currently present, the young witch was to provide moral support for the time being. Really she just wanted to see a true dragon up close. As well as Leila’s new powers, obviously. Unfortunately, she was unable to help with much else.

Akeya who seemingly had just arrived was the mentioned dragon. And as one, Leila hoped she would be able to teach her how to deal and control these new powers. After all, they could be quite dangerous if left to their own devices. Magic itself was alive, that much was a widely known fact even if many tried to deny it. So the sooner she would be able to establish harmony with it, the better. For now, she stood up and stretched before heading from the center of the landmark toward where Akeya was coming from along with Megumi.

The dragoness, on the other end, would soon see something that could potentially look like a trap. Slimes. Many, many slimes that started pouring from seemingly every direction. They were all of a slightly transparent blue color and had… what appeared to be faces created by black lines, like emojis from the new Lacrima Net that so many young people seemed to be using these days. They were not moving too quickly, but not exactly slow either, bouncing their way straight toward the dark-haired girl. But there was a good lack of hostility coming from them as well.

In fact, they appeared awfully docile and non-responsive even if they were to be attacked or pushed away. All they would do is brush up against Akeya’s legs and sorta push against them with almost no force at all as if they were animals wanting to be pet by their owner. But instead of dogs or cats, it was a hoard of slimes. Finally, Leila would appear from behind one of the stones and call out. “Oh, Akeya! Sorry for calling you all the way out here and- WHAT IS GOING ON?!”

Seemingly surprised to see the slimes herself, she quickly turned her gaze toward Megumi who stood proudly next to her. “Ahaha, behold! My special Welcome slimes! They have been created for the purpose of greeting new arrivals! Perfect, are they not? No need to praise me too much, ehehe~” Well, that was that explained. With a sigh, Leila would turn toward the dragoness again. “Sorry about that… were you able to make the trip okay?”

At this point, Akeya was probably easily able to identify something different about the girl in front of her. Completely new armor and even slightly altered hairstyle! Leila now wore a rose-themed mix of light cloth armor and actual plating for protection! Something that surprisingly uncommon even for mages who fight for a living. Aside from that, her magic seemed a little bit different, but not that much. Gardens of Eden were still highly dominant within her being and thus masking the dragon-like presence rather well. Megumi was just a regular human whose magical power appeared to be at the near minimum for a proper mage.

Word Count: 1,150 / 12,500

Akeya could have expected many things. Leila, for one thing. Dragon hunters. Strange creatures from this continent which were difficult to equate to anything from Ishgar. A complex magic array. There had been a lot of options for what she could be facing after arriving at the meeting point in this strange land. Slimes with smileys, on the other hand, had not been on the list. Monstrous slimes that devoured everything in their path? A distant possibility but nevertheless on the table. Smiley slimes? No.

As such the dragoness's first response was to stare with confusion and caution. Just because they looked harmless didn't mean they were. It could be that whoever was controlling these things was trying the old and tried method of luring their target into a false sense of security. She was pretty sure there was a controller because slimes were notorious for their lack of intelligence and cooperative ability. The smallest type was little more than an overgrown appetite, slowly plodding around while feeding on whatever refuse could be found in their path. It was possible for a type of slime to become big and intelligent enough to behave like a sentient creature but even so they would have to use some method for directly steering their lesser kin.

When the little translucent smiling blobs came close enough for possible physical contact Akeya jumped up into the air and spread her wings to remain airborne. There were plenty of people who would probably be happy to have a bunch of slimes hug their legs. Akeya had little interest and wasn't going to risk them being some kind of trap or trickery. Of course they could also have the purpose of forcing her into the air but she was pretty sure she had better odds reacting to something which still had to approach her while she was in the air than the slimes if they were already clinging to her legs.

Fortunately before she got around to deciding whether to leave the slimes alone or to start wiping them out she sensed and saw Leila's approach. While she took notice of the different appearance she didn't immediately draw any conclusions from it, instead raising one scaled and clawed hand in greeting while observing the interaction between the goddess and the significantly weaker mage. Apparently that one was the owner of the slimes and something of an airhead as she apparently thought that teaching her slimes how to hug people was a good use of her time and magic.

"I'm guessing most people would be more confused by the welcome party than appreciative." She stated bluntly when the unknown mage proudly spoke about her 'brilliant' idea of having her slimes hug people upon arrival. Flying closer to Leila she tried to find a spot where there weren't any slimes so she could land. Once this surprisingly difficult task was achieved she'd approach the goddess on clawed foot once more while glancing towards the forest in the distance. "The trip was fine. Tedious for the most part. Although I have to say that this place is quite intriguing for how much it differs from Ishgar. I'm guessing this is the origin of dragons given how abundant magic is here." Her emerald eyes returned to those stone teeth which still drew her attention in some way. "Of course there's also a lot of things to be wary of... Can you explain why you asked me to come to this place?"

However before Leila was given the opportunity to reply the unusual draconic assassin blinked and stared at Leila directly, tearing her gaze away from the monolithic circle. It might be because her senses had been on sharp from the beginning, or because the change of clothing had caused her to wonder, or because it was something which was of actual importance to Akeya, but as faint as it was she suddenly picked up on there being something different to her friend beyond just the colour scheme of her attire. Having already closed the distance until she was standing in front of Leila Akeya suddenly leaned forward and sniffed, her nostrils widening as her eyes narrowed. "Hmmm... that's strange." She mumbled, uncharacteristically distracted as all her attention had been drawn towards that foreign element in Leila's presence. "I think I recognize that scent but I'm not sure where it's from... it's from a while ago at the very least." It took several seconds before she realized how she'd let herself get drawn in. Hurriedly straightening her posture she folded her arms and glanced around to make sure she hadn't missed anything while she was thinking about it before returning her gaze to the goddess. There was a slight grimace on her face as she was aware that she'd let her guard down and acted a bit too forwardly and wasn't too happy with the realization. "Anyway... what is it?"

WC: 818
TWC: 1,848/12,500

Megumi was not exactly pleased when she was informed that people would be more confused than anything by her army of friendly slimes. Which seemed to be rather consistent no matter where they went as far as Leila was concerned, though the silver-haired maiden remained silent. The slime witch pouted and watched the hovering dragon as the slimes started creating a bit of a jelly pile beneath her, a giant blob of many emoji faces. “You’re just unappreciative of the world-changing power of slimes! Ugh, why is it so hard to find people who can see their true value…”

Grumbling to herself walked over the gathering of her followers and started to pick them up, to which they responded quite gladly by sticking to her. It was honestly impressive how ‘solid’ the girl managed to make them with her magic and alchemy when she was creating them. But that was neither here, nor there. As Akeya approach Leila, the silver-haired girl would fidget a little bit and look around nervously, as if she wasn’t somehow expecting this situation. In reality, she was just unsure how to present the problem at hand… or in this situation, problems.

And before she could even do so, the dragoness had leaned toward her without any warning, prompting Leila to instinctively lean back to prevent physical contact. Not that she needed to do so, Akeya seemed to quickly retreat before explaining herself a little bit. It made sense in Leila’s head, the fact that she could maybe smell a dragon on her physical form. In meant that there was really not much of a point in hiding it. The question was still how to give her all of the information. After all, these would be no easy tasks here.

With a sigh, she decided to start with the ‘bigger’ problem. “I called you here because there is something threatening this land. And I recently got some… attachments here. It’s a dragon. A powerful one as far as I know. So I need the help of someone with magic capable of properly hurting a dragon.” While this was the more pressing issue at hand, it was actually not the real reason why Leila picked Akeya specifically. She could have called for any other powerful mage she knew, someone like Samira Nassar. Dragons could be harmed even without dragon slaying magic.

Not that having such magic present was a problem of any kind at this point. This was about to bring her to the other point, as Leila slowly removed the crimson red scarf shielding her neck. She was not about to fully undress for this, but she might have as well let as much of her new features show as possible. “There’s also another thing… I… might have recently absorbed some foreign magic into my body on accident. And now that magic is a permanent part of my body. It’s… I was hoping you could help me control it…”

Taking a deep breath, Leila performed something she had done only once before as of right now. A swirl of crimson magical energy started gathering around her, shrouding her physical form inside of it for a moment, concealing it from the prying eyes of outsiders. It only took mere seconds before it dissipated again, but what it left was quite a bit different from what was there before. Leila as an individual has changed. Her skin had a slightly pink-ish tint to it now. Not only that, she was covered in red scaled which appeared almost like petals of a rose.

Her eyes changed from the deep blue to red as well, sharp claws adorning her fingers. Pink and red stripes were now included in the long silver hair and between the individual strands were numerous horns curved around the shape of her head. Where would normally be the fluffy wolf tail after transformation was also a long and scaled tail with a pointed tip. All in all, Leila looked somewhat similar to Akeya herself now. She has activated the dragon magic inside of her and forced it into a dominant state, which in turn forced this transformation onto her body.

“It was a magic of a Rose dragon. The last of its kind as far as I’m aware… it died and gave me its crystallized heart. But the magic inside of it moved into my body and did this. It’s not… invasive per se. But I do not have full control over it all yet. Since you’re a dragon yourself, I was hoping that you could help me deal with this power somehow…” Up until now, Leila has never actually learned proper new magic. All of her powers were part of Eden and thus perfectly natural for her.

Whenever she was ready, these new magics would simply manifest in her and she would be able to control them almost right away. Her power was directly linked to the power of her link with the Gardens of Eden rather than some form of training or anything else. It was quite unfair to most mages who had to work hard every single day to grow stronger. But that was simply how things were. But this dragon magic was not part of Eden and thus started causing trouble for the young girl.

Megumi in the meantime scooted ever and leaned toward Akeya herself. “Hehe, she’s looking rather cute like that, doesn’t she?” Then she leaned even closer and started whispering. “Those scaled are actually really smooth, feels really nice along with her skin. I could get you a slime that can melt clothing if you want to feel for yourself!” Joking around like that, Leila blushed quite deeply as she took a wary step back. It was strange for her new senses that she could hear even whispers like that so clearly. And also a bit disconcerting for her own well-being. Megumi was dangerous in her own right…

Word Count: 2,139 / 12,500

Not surprisingly the slime witch wasn't happy when Akeya gave her blunt opinion. The dragoness couldn't really pretend to care much: she didn't know this person, and she wasn't the kind of person who'd go around cheering other people up anyway. She'd tried cheering Leila up when the goddess was feeling down, and even that had been a rather clumsy attempt from someone who seriously was not used to acting as the emotional support for anyone else. Quite frankly she was more likely to be the cause of distress for others. At least for her enemies. Assassin and all that. "I'd suggest finding some female elves and seeing what they think of the slimes. That said if you're actually trying to make them friendly I'd suggest making sure they don't completely swamp the target and suffocate them, since most people can't breathe through a layer of smiling jello."

With that message delivered she returned her attention to Leila. Her friend was clearly struggling to think of the right words to explain whatever was on her mind. Given that rushing her wouldn't make her speak any faster the dragoness would just fold her arms and wait for the silver-haired girl to get to the point.

"If there's a dragon causing trouble in these parts it's true that another dragon is one of your best options. We've evolved to be good at fighting one another." She nodded to show her agreement with Leila's reasoning as she said this. It reminded her of how humans thought Dragon Slayer magic was invented as a weapon against dragons, but it was true that it was more effective than most other types of magic. "Of course with you being as strong as you are you should also be capable of inflicting quite some damage. We dragons are extremely resilient but we aren't invincible." Some dragons may consider that an admission to weakness. Akeya would argue that claims of invincibility would be arrogant, short-sighted and easily called as a bluff.

She frowned as Leila removed her scarf and touched upon the second topic. Invasion of an external magic was rarely a good thing. Possession, curses, voodoo... there were quite a few ways that a magic that didn't belong to you could be put inside your being and then used to mess you up. Of course it was also possible to do it with positive effects...

Akeya already had a decent suspicion what she would be seeing here but still stepped back and kept a wary eye out in case things went haywire. Even if she didn't think Leila was planning a trap or anything of the sort there were other ways that this could go wrong. Although her suspicion was confirmed when she felt the magic that the goddess was emanating. A magic which took her back to someone she'd known in the past. It was one of the more pleasant types of magic to sense, although that in itself was one of the dangers that this magic presented.

After all, roses had plenty of thorns for someone who carelessly reached towards the beauty.

Once the transformation had ended the dark dragon inspected Leila carefully. The scales reminiscent of rose petals, the thorn-like horns, the reddish hues on her skin... There was no doubt that this was the magic of the Rose Dragon. "The Rose Dragon appears to be one of the most elusive of dragon types. In years past I encountered another one of them who also believed herself to be the last one... I don't know whether you're correct in assuming you're the last one but it makes little difference if there is no way of finding out and no way to contact any of the others even if they do exist. I believe they were hunted in the past a lot as well. Or at least, groups of idiots would stumble through forests and jungles at the rumour of one while rarely finding any." She snorted rather derisively at that.

She glanced sideways at Megumi as the slime witch offered to melt away Leila's clothes for a better look at what the transformation had changed. The tip of her tail flicked from side to side a couple of times before she shook her head. "Teaching her how to control this magic takes priority. Besides, she can hear you," She indicated Leila with her head. "So even if you tried I think she would dodge."

Scraping her throat Akeya focused on the task at hand: helping the goddess gain sufficient control of the dragon magic that it wouldn't get in the way, and possibly even be of use. If they were hunting a dragon having someone else with usable dragon magic would make things easier. Even if Leila's control wasn't as thorough as Akeya's she could pose a credible threat which the assassin could use to get in close and land some hits.

"I don't know exactly how your magic works other than that it's linked to that Garden of Eden thatyou have mentioned before, but I'll first give a summary of the difference between dragon magic and human magic. Human magic is like a tool: through incantations, magic circles and other reagents they shape the magic into the desired shape to gain the desired effect. This makes them versatile but also means that their magic is often not closely tied to their being.

Dragon magic doesn't work like that. We're creatures of magic and our magic is a part of us. That's why it's nearly impossible for a non-dragon to learn dragon magic unless they're directly taught by a dragon or have a lachrima of dragon magic fused to their body. While the more advanced spells can still require reagents most of our magic is as simple for us as moving an arm or flexing our claws." She held out a claw and flexed it as a way to add emphasis to her words before dropping it again.

"This has obvious advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that we're capable of performing feats which humans and other mortals could only accomplish through complicated rituals. And we do so flexibly: we cannot change our magic as smoothly as humans who exchange different types as if switching tools, but within our field we are not restricted by rigid runes. It also means that our magic becomes stronger together with the rest of us, and the rest of us becomes stronger with our magic. Most other types of magic require specific actions to be taken to have them reinforce the body and the soul.

The downsides are the aformentioned lack of ability to easily switch between different types of magic... and the fact that if you're not used to having dragon magic flowing through you it can interfere with every part of your being. That and like all magical creatures if we're put in an null-magic zone or an area where mana is being drained away we suffer as well.

Fortunately the fact that you have a lachrima makes it easier to get a basic level of control. That's the advantage of lachrima, although the lack of thorough understanding often leaves those who use this shortcut as having trouble with the more advanced abilities. Given that we have a mission to complete we don't have months for your training but we can at least put you in a state where you don't have to fear it interfering with your normal use of magic.

The first step would be straightforward: meditation. While meditating ignore everything but the magic flowing through you. Don't restrict it, let it spread out freely. As it spreads throughout your being you should begin to feel it more distinctly, along with the ebbs and floods similar to the flowing of your blood. Since you're already a supernatural creature this shouldn't be too difficult for you. The next step would be to see if you can move the magic as if moving your arms and legs. You don't have to worry about delicate movement: if you can reliably make it move in the correct direction and stop when you want it to stop you'll already have made the first important step."

WC: 1,366
TWC: 3,214/12,500