Note: The following roleplay thread is a flashback
It was a cold, quiet day in the phoenix mountains. The thin layer of snow that covered everything had formed a white sheet over the entirety of the surrounding landscape, the top layer of the snow itself turned into a small crust of ice so that with each step one would take the snow crunched beneath the feet. Of course, Aspen Laeta Azarov, guild member of Silver Wolf, had no idea, nor did she care. It had been a small while since she had officially joined the guild, and already it had, in her opinion, been one of the best decisions of her life. While she felt like the individual guild members still seemed somewhat distant, that was to be expected. In fact, she didn't take any offense, for she felt she had her part in it as well. She knew she wasn't agreeable at most times and preferred solitude over company. Additionally, she had only been with the guild for a short time, and was still trying to get used to everything, and perhaps even more importantly, everyone. The life in Fiore did intrigue her as much as it confused her at times, many things being wholly different from not just the Paladins, but also Pergrande as a whole. Apart from that, her language skills improved, she had continuously learned new things, and ... well, Silver Wolf had become something of a haven for her. The guild was not just equipped with state of the art technology, machines, and devices, it also permitted, no, in fact even greatly encouraged eagerness in experimentalism. Aspen felt like she, in all her time as a "mage", the term loosely used for the girl who still channeled her magical power through an item to use it effectively (while she also thought that she hadn't done anything to deserve a title associated with so much prestige such as this one), had made more progress in the development of her spells, techniques, weapons, items and everything else she had ever dreamed of during her time with Silver Wolf than in her entire time in the engineering and research departments of the Paladins, almost her entire lifetime, combined.
Like that, Aspen sat in the guild cafeteria, stirring, with one hand, the cup of dark liquid before herself, her head placed on the other. She had never tasted something quite like this before. It was bitter, but not a bad taste. Apparently called "coffee" in the local tongue, the drink was served warm and helped not just lift the spirit, but also energized, something quite different to the numbing feeling of alcohol, especially the cheap one she had been used to. The concept of this was alien to her, and yet, she was fascinated, as she tended to be fascinated by a lot of things the world outside Pergrande had to offer, be it magic or an ordinary drink. Of course, she never did and would never show that, her face remaining as stoic and void of expression as always as she stared at a wall, though ... she couldn't suppress a small smirk for but a few seconds. She really couldn't help herself. "I'm so lucky ...", she thought briefly before a sickening feeling of guilt started creeping up her consciousness. The smirk vanished. Why was she the only one that had made it out that day? Where were the others, what were they doing, feeling right now? It's not like there hadn't been people back home that she cared about, but ... she had to focus. This life, this freedom was a gift given to her and she wouldn't spend it obsessing over what couldn't be undone. She would be happy. For everyone else's sake. She quickly downed the last sip of her coffee, the exhilarating feeling of warmth spreading quickly inside her chest. Standing up from the seat, she took a deep breath. There was work to be done today, and not some easy-peasy work either. No, she had set her mind on something, and she would try her very best to actually accomplish her, now that she thought about it, truly impossible goal. She had been planning this ever since her first arrival, and only now had both the materials and the tools she needed. It had taken her all the money she could muster, more than that even, some convincing, haggling, and even the odd subtle, well-placed threat as well. But now she was where she wanted to be, had what she wanted to have ... well, maybe not quite yet, though she was close, so close she only needed to extend her hand and reach for it, grasp it firmly, her fate that was closer than ever. She would ascend. Aspen Laeta Azarov would do what, to her knowledge, no one before her had ever attempted: She would synthesize a Dragon Slayer Lacrima.
Though previously unknown to her, she had, during one of her "catching up" sessions, that being what she called the all-nighters she pulled in the Silver Wolf library informing herself about all manners of mage society, items, the countries of Earthland as well as magic itself, stumbled across the concept of Lacrimas. Now Lacrimas were, well, it was hard to explain, essentially, they were crystalline structures capable of storing and releasing magic in a controlled manner, certain types of magic as well. That was all well and good, but a pretty basic concept in and of itself ... if it hadn't been for the nature of magic itself. Magic, as far as the common consensus of the magical world was concerned, was the physical manifestation of one's soul, one's own will to fight, one's strength, and being. Now, if those two concepts could be applied to each other when taking into consideration another third factor ... there would perhaps be the possibility of creating a magical lacrima for herself. Not just any lacrima, however. The third factor was that she needed a shard, a particularly unique shard, that being some form of the essence of a young dragon. One that hadn't developed magic yet. She wasn't even sure if something like that had existed at all, she could imagine how extremely rare and hard to get something so exotic as that had been, but, at last, after a rigorous process of following every hint, every trace she had acquired the blood of a young dragon, who, according to the man who had sold it to her, had been dead for a couple of centuries at least. This fact had extinguished any moral concerns that Aspen had had about this endeavor of hers, and, with her last jewel gone, but everything she required in her hands, the day had finally come. It was time.
Making her way down the stairs in the guildhall and into the mountain below, Aspen was heading straight down towards the Research and Development labs. Naturally, this was the place to go, only they had the necessary machinery and the tools to even attempt such a feat, and only there could she hope to ever reach notable results. Opening the door, Aspen was not surprised to see this lab empty. It was still relatively early in the morning, not surprising to find it like this. The people of the guild liked their sleep, Aspen had noticed, and so, without much more hesitation, the girl headed over to the furnace. The machine, essentially a large steel box with tungsten inlay, could be used to liquefy metal and other materials, reaching sufficiently high temperatures to even starts breaking down the crystal of a lacrima. Though liquifying it would be easy enough, two problems would arise with this: Firstly, Aspen had to keep releasing her own magic into the object in order to guarantee that the finished lacrima would not be rejected by her body, and secondly, casting crystallines was more akin to working glass. It had to cool down slowly and evenly in order to stay intact lest the difference in temperature causes the finished crystal to crack. She only had one shot at this, and this was it. She took deep breaths, in and out, before opening the furnace, placing the cup with lacrima dust inside. So far so good, this would be the easiest part. Leaving one hand on the outside of the furnace, the girl released a constant and steady stream of raw magical energy into the surface and atmosphere of the blast furnace to act as a catalyst for the ethernano.
After a good 20 minutes, she could already feel the strain of having to work with magic this much. She wasn't good in the use of it, she still needed her Iron Key to act as a funnel for her magical abilities, but she had to pull through ... or the experiment would fail. She couldn't risk her precious prototype, though ... she was still at a stage where she could cancel the process and start anew some other time. She seriously considered it for but a second, deciding against it. She was too excited to stop the forging process now, opening the furnace while maintaining the constant level of magical influx. The Lacrima dust had turned into a thin, soupy orange liquid, glowing and radiating intense heat. Perfect. Preparing a second tungsten case, Aspen carefully added alloy after alloy until she had almost all 91 present before placing the next container inside the furnace, carefully making sure to keep up the wavelength of magical energy.
Waiting another 20 or so minutes, Aspen started feeling dizzy. She had probably spent more than half of her magic energy at this point. It wouldn't enough for too much more, but luckily, the other container was now almost full to the brim with an equally soupy liquid, though this one was of an undefinable brownish color, while the lacrima liquid had further heated up, the orange from before now almost a bright, white, sparkling glow. It was mesmerizing, but, of course, she had to stay focussed, she had an experiment to finish. Now came the part where mistakes were least likely, at least from her part. Metalworking was her specialty. Taking the tongs and using them to grasp the tungsten container, the sweat on the girl's forehead reflected the glow of the ever so dimly radiating substance in the container. Still, Aspen couldn't help but break her expressionlessness for the second time today as another smirk found its way onto her face, the girl placing the container on a steel place gently, constantly sending out wave after wave of magical energy to keep the compound stable. The mix of metals looked acceptable, it wasn't something you saw all day, so many metals mixed together, but it was exactly what she needed for this creation. Now came the difficult part though. The dragon blood. Popping the cork on the small vial Aspen immediately sensed the disgusting iron smell of the red substance fill the room. It was strong, and, as it if was still fresh and taken directly from a wound of one of the beasts bleeding hearts, very much liquid. Perfect. Now came the moment of truth. She had to make sure the dragon blood would be distributed amongst the metals in the compound evenly. For this, she had built a special little contraption, a steel container that opened from both top and bottom to be filled with the crimson substance and release it into the metal as she moved it. Filling the blood into the steel container she closed the top portion before lowering it, with a small sizzling sound, into the metallic liquid. Pulling the small lever at the side, the contraption seemed to work as intended, releasing, slowly, controlled and evenly, the blood into the mix, the compound reacting immediately. It sizzled and boiled, steam rising from it filling the room with more disgusting smells, the liquid evaporating almost instantly as Aspen made sure no bubbles were forming inside the liquid. It was not the blood itself she had been after, anyway, no ... It was the iron within that would prove useful.
The steel container was now fully removed from the liquid, and the blood fully absorbed by the metal as another wave of magic engulfed the liquid with faint, light blue hues. Now or never. This was the moment of truth. The still brightly flashing lacrima liquid was still in the oven. Quickly, Aspen placed it beside the metal compound on the steel place, grasping the mixture of metallic materials, giving it one last look, one last ever-increasingly exhausting wave of magic, before pouring the molten metal into the other container. The reaction was immense. Flames shot forth from the Lacrima container, first bright white, then changing to blue, then green and lastly, orange and red before dying down completely. Strangely enough, the tungsten container hadn't gotten any more full. No, it was as if the metal had simply vanished within the depths of this glowing, thin liquid, absorbed through the strange magical properties of the substance. This was going to be a full success. Aspen could barely hold back her excitement as she immediately moved the now more than ever glowing and sparkling substance to the prepared mold, slowly and steadily, with precision, emptying out every last drop into it. The surface of the container was clean as if none of the contents had ever been in there. "Strange, this lacrima stuff", she quickly thought without pausing, now placing the mold in another device to, slowly and under strict control, lose its temperature. Aspen was tired, she was exhausted, she could barely see and her head was spinning with both excitement and dizziness, but it was almost done. Just a little more, a little more and she would see. A little more and - The low beep of the oven brought her back to the present, swinging the door open, the girl grabbed the mold with her own hands. It was warm to the touch. Incredible. Now came the moment of truth. Carefully, she placed a hammer, a regular hammer, not one created from her Iron Key due to lack of magical energy, on the side before with one little chip, the mold broke in half. Aspen audibly gasped for air. Lifting the top portion of it off ... she was staring down onto a small, spherical object. It was approximately fist-sized, grey, almost shiny, and perfectly round, appearing like a heavy chunk of pure metal. Her heart skipped a beat. It was beautiful, and, perhaps more importantly, it was hers. Grasping the object with both hands, Aspen now for the first time in a very long time, smiling as she brought it closer to herself, almost lovingly, to embrace the lacrima. Though it didn't stop, it was as if it was solid in one and liquid in the next second, the skin of her hands, of her body, starting to absorb whatever this otherworldly object was. Aspen was shaking. This was all she had worked so hard for, and now it would show what it would bring her. Briefly, everything around the girl turned black.
Then, as if with the mighty roar of a dragon, she felt pure magical energy surge through her body, her bones, her skin and the air around her, her eyes briefly flashing with bright yellow as they turned into those of a reptile, a pulse of faintly grey energy traveling across her skin as it left behind grey scales that instantly turned back into normal skin, and there was something else. Knowledge. Memory. Understanding. Aspen suddenly, as if she had known all her life as if her body was moving on her own, knew that she had received abilities beyond those of normal mortals. Peeking over at a metal wrench Aspen was willing to take the chance. Slowly, with insecure steps, she made her way over to the table and snatched the tool off of the surface, eyeing it for a few seconds, before slowly bringing it closer to her mouth. She had read enough about Dragon Slayers to know how this was supposed to work. Cautiously, her lips parted, and, with one, forceful bite, she had taken off a chunk of the item, already swallowing the metal before she had even processed what she had just done. It had come as easy as biting off a piece of a chocolate bar as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Instantly, she felt a little of her magical energy return, crushing the rest of the tool between her teeth. She had done it. She had become so much more than just the girl from before. Aspen the Soldier. Aspen the Paladin. Aspen the Fugitive. She would show the world what she was capable of. They would all see.
Aspen the Dragon Slayer.
Word Count: 2,812
