Master of Dragons: Stage 1

https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t29686-master-of-dragons-acquisition

It was a cold day in the city of Talonia. While it was mid afternoon, it was slightly darker than as the sky was filled with clouds, blanketing the land from the light of the sun. The streets of the city of the guildless was coated in snow and some ice, varying in some areas could be thirty centimeters thick while more well maintained streets had the snow shoveled and brushed off, ice melted or removed as well. To add to the serene beauty was the gentle snow fall cascading across the town, pushed by the gentle cool winds fluttering about. The town was brimming with life, most of the children who were out playing were slowly retreating back into their homes and a lot of markets were still open.  The streets were light with Lacrimas, and there seemed to be a happy demeanor based on the ambient chatter of the town.

Luna and Amelia were walking through the town, enjoying the peaceful serenity as the streets were between crowded and empty. "You know Luna, you look strangely at ease since we're about to, you know, go into a dangerous pit?" Amelia asked, not trying to ruin the mood of the fairy. "I don't see it as a pit, I see it as a wealth of hidden knowledge waiting to be uncovered. Plus you gotta enjoy the mood, in a city that harbors the highest criminal and dark wizard population and can still find the courage to live joyfully, and the weather is just beautiful." Amelia raised an eyebrow with a quizzical stare towards Luna. "So you're good with the cold? But aren't most of your abilities based on plants and thus a warmer climate be more appropriate?"

Luna shrugged it off, she had spent many times in the cold, some of her fondest memories were in the midst of winter. Even when her family state seemed like it could not get any lower, they still held together throughout the coldest of times. "I'm a Nature Fairy and winter is as much a part of nature as plants, and if need be I can summon plants out here in this weather. Besides, some of my family's best moments were in the winter. I remember the year when Hakar managed to actually hunt a wart hog with a carving knife. That was a good meal." Amelia raised a eyebrow as given her knowledge of Luna's family that seemed like a contradiction. She remembered hearing about Luna's useless brother. Luna caught onto the impression and figured some clarity wouldn't hurt. "Before he was the town drunk, I was about ten at the time and a passing by hunter was breaking in a new animal partner who went wild and smelled the broth I was carrying and came at me, pinned me down and bruised and maybe fractured a few ribs, my arms were sore for two days and I couldn't walk for a while. Hakar was nearby picking up some of my father's spare tool replacements by coincidence, he tackled the hog and in a quick struggle got it off me and managed to kill the beast. Honestly that was probably one of my best memories of Hakar."

Amelia remained silent for a moment as she was trying to navigate through the listed directions on the job. Asking locals seemed to prove a fruitless endeavor as the responses were not helpful. The townsfolk either did not know or felt the directions being asked for were some form of joke. Eventually the two soon found the house in question. The two girls stopped out front, looking at the slightly run down house that appeared almost abandoned.

"Any red flags?" Amelia asked concernedly, Luna shrugged. "A few but nothing bad as long as we remain cautious. Seems like a great way to ambush and rob mages but even then we can't judge a book by it's cover."

WC 653

What was the quickest way to make people suspicious of what you were doing? Claim that whatever it was you were up to was completely legal, even if you refused to spill any details.

Akeya sometimes wondered about her position in regards to the law. She didn't have much respect for civilization or its restrictions yet she found herself most often helping out. In the past her primary motivation had been that she didn't want the Magic Council to see her as a threat but by this point she'd attained enough power that the amount of people who could actually be a threat to her had become quite slim. And only a portion of that list was invested into enforcing the law at all times.

Of course, if she did become great enough a threat those powerful people would have plenty of reason to seek her out...

Regardless, the reason why she was on this job was less about the issue of whether it was truly legal or not and more that the information regarding the job indicated that there was something worthwhile to be obtained here. The dragoness was a glutton for both power and knowledge even if she wasn't quite as blatant about it as many other dragons. She didn't think there'd ever be a time in her life where she wouldn't be learning something new or refining something old. Even if you were already powerful enough that most creatures were beneath you there was always a higher level...

Especially when your first reaction to hearing stories of the gods was to look up at the heavens and wonder what it would be like to kill one of those powerful entities, those deities who ruled the celestial world high above.

Right now Akeya was hidden inside the shadows. All the shadows. She'd spread herself out until her consciousness covered a large section of Talonia, constantly moving about and shifting from shadow to shadow as she searched for the location of the home of the man whose claims were both suspicious yet intriguing. The average person wouldn't even notice her presence, the shadows looking the same as always. The average mage might get the faint sense that there was something, but would not be able to attribute that sensation to anything other than the blowing of the wind.

The powerful mages, however... Akeya prided herself for her stealth, a result of rigorous training, innate talent and plenty of cleverness. She'd managed to find ways to hide herself from all five the basic senses, then doubled down and also worked hard to protect herself from those who'd try to find her through her magic, her soul, her life or even her very presence. However there was no feat that magic could perform that magic could not also counter. An annoying side effect of the balance of reality, even if it benefited Akeya as often as it hindered her.

Powerful mages she would have to be careful with, and as luck would have it there was one right here in Talonia. Fortunately it was someone that Akeya had worked with before. Unfortunately things hadn't ended so well last time. She remembered Luna as the fairy who had been eager to help explore a new world only to end up unable to endure that world's alien nature. A shame, although the dragoness wouldn't hesitate in admitting that Luna's snooty companion, the fairy princess or whatever, had made it a lot easier for the twilight assassin to agree to sending both fairies back home to Earthland.

But at least Luna looked like she was doing better now. And the snooty princess was nowhere to be found. Still, that was no reason to become too nonchalant.

Akeya's method of searching for the right address was both exhaustive, thorough and fast, and it didn't take too long before she concentrated her being to manifest her physical form in a shadow next to the house where she would be meeting this man with his 'completely legal' work.

But before she entered she waited for Luna to arrive. It hadn't taken long to notice that the fairy was also heading towards this building, and Akeya would rather know what exactly the pink-haired mage was doing here. If they were aiming for the same thing she'd prefer to be in a position where if there was any backstabbing needed she'd be the one to do it.

Silently she stood there hidden in the shadows until Luna and Amelia arrived, at which point she'd listen to their conversation before stepping out of the shadows. "It's not entirely surprising that there'd be people other than myself who'd be interested in what's going on here." She glanced at Amelia, noticing the unusual concentration of magic within the girl... as well as the subtle signs that there was something other than flesh and blood standing there. "I do hope the two of you aren't here to put a stop to it though. I'm rather interested in what this man might have to say."

Folding her arms her emerald eyes narrowed as she returned most of her attention towards Luna. "That aside, hello again Luna. I'm guessing you're feeling better back here where the world is in tune with you."

WC: 877
PWC: 877/11,000
TWC: 1,530/22,000

When Luna was approaching the area, she had a nagging feeling at the back of her mind as it felt like there was a form of life around, surrounding the area but still as one lifeform. Luna remembered the feeling, the sensation was more then familiar and a name was on the edge of her tongue as she felt slightly uneasy with the surrounding shadows. However the feeling soon came to pass as the weirdness seemed to condense and compress into a form that would soon intercept the path of the two girls. Luna could sense more clearly as the shadows returned to matter, thus allowing the life force to become more and more clear to detect as it took a physical form. From what Luna was told by her mother, a being that takes on a pure energy or darkness form, especially one stretched out has their life force caught in a unique state that was hard to describe.

Luna was slightly surprised as she was able to recognize the being as she and Amelia approached to be someone that she had met before, under horrid circumstances. A job that nearly killed Luna in horrible ways, it sent chills down her spine as Akeya brought up the very occasion. However Luna was too flustered by the sight of the twilight dragoness feel the pain of the memories. She blushed at the sight and it took a moment for her scattered sight to even allow her gaze to remained fixed on Akeya's gaze. "Oh, um, thanks Akeya, it was a rough process to heal. I had to essentially sit for three days and night in a prayer circle of other healing specialist fae to heal. Don't worry, we're also here for the job..."

Amelia seemed to lose her balance for a moment. "Wait, this is Akeya? You told me she was just an average looker with a few dragon parts, no personality. This is a drop dead gorgeous dragoness!" Amelia could see how red Luna's face was, she jabbed her elbow into Luna's side playfully. Amelia could practically hear the scraping of the gold heart within Luna. "Oh I see, that's how it is, for heaven's sake Luna, I know you have a thing for Dragons, as did your mother for some weird reason since you are both fairies that without magical intervention can't even handle a dragon's claw, but you didn't need to worry about competition that bad."

Desperate to change the subject, Luna figured it would be better to get things going in a more productive direction, or just any direction to avoid her embarrassment. "Anyways, this doll next to me is my partner, Amelia Thorn. I think you might find her interesting, she's not human as you can probably sense already. She is a Gynoid made from two cores, an advanced form of Archive magic creating an artificial brain lacrima, and powered by a shard of a large legendary lightning lacrima. She is, bound to me through an Organic Link as part of her conditions to be able to use her magic, which she has expertise in both archive and lightning."

Amelia nodded, figuring that if Luna brought it up, her composition might be of interest to the dragoness. "Well my original name was Project AT-X, but I named myself Amelia Thorn. I was originally supposed to be no more powerful then the average non-magical teenage girl, but they literally shaved off a piece of a Lacrima that had so much lightning Magic energy, it could blow a hole through the moon and still go on, and a body that was designed to adapt, so it just learned to develop a magic subsystem to be able to tap into and channel the energy into many uses. Literally their oversight as they simply wanted a power source that would be able to function long term. I'm told my older sisters were wind and solar powered respectively, but they didn't exactly get very far."

Amelia looked at the old house as she noticed there wasn't any lights on. On closer inspection there was damage to the doorknob and lock, leaving the door slightly open. "Did either of you sense any life force or via shadows on any living beings inside that house?" The question itself started to pique Luna's curiosity. "Now that you mention it, the door looks wedged open, and I can't actually sense anything alive inside the house. At worst I sense slightly rotten meat."

Amelia looked at Luna slightly confused. "You can sense meat rotting? Since when?" Luna shrugged. It wasn't a application of her ability that was normally easy to use at a distance. "Not much else living and since Akeya isn't clouding my sense with quantum superposition anymore and there isn't much else around I can sense the smaller stuff. While food is still edible, it still has some form of life force even though the soul is already gone. If you think of life force like a sound or fire, think of small crackles, that is what rotting is like." Amelia raised an eyebrow. "Quantum superposition? You saying this dragoness can break universal Laws?" 

Luna shrugged as she was not sure of the full answer herself. "Well not exactly her, but definitely her life force; when she's a shadow, her life force is in a state of both existing and not, forming not really a nullification but like a fog for me trying to sense any Life Force. It's hard to describe, I can't sense her directly but there are slight traces, since she doesn't have a physical form she becomes impossible to track through her life force. Shadow magics and certain non corporeal forms tends to do that a lot."

WC 958
PWC 1611/11,000
TWC 2488/22,000 [11.3%]

It was with mixed feelings that Akeya listened as Luna's friend began to explain that the fairy had tried to describe the dragoness as rather average. She'd probably have found it insulting if it wasn't for the fact that this Amelia then made up for it by herself admitting that the scaled assassin was a deadly beauty... and that the reason why Luna described her as average-looking wasn't to dismiss Akeya's good looks but because she didn't want others to take an interest in her. She placed a clawed hand on one hip as she shifted her weight and watched Luna clearly be uncomfortable with the gynoid freely speaking about things the pink-haired mage clearly would rather not have spoken out loud.

"You do realize that I have a functional pair of ears, right?" As she said this the corner of her mouth quirked into a light smirk. "But I'll thank you for the compliment. Although if you think that I'll just let anyone get close to me you clearly don't know me very well." Akeya was proud with a rather cold and calculating personality, so she wasn't the type of person who'd just get romantically involved with anybody.

As the fairy quickly introduced the gynoid and said gynoid also began to talk about herself the dragoness shifted her focus away from Luna and towards Amelia, her eyes narrowing as she studied the girl more thoroughly. "Hold still." She said this with a voice which made it clear she expected Amelia to do as she was told, the dragoness moving with a kind of confidence and deadly grace which said that not only did she expect lesser creatures to move according to her will, she had ways of making them wish they had if they didn't. Coming to stand in front of the blonde construct she leaned forward to inspect the significantly smaller woman from up close, emerald reptilian eyes peering at various parts of Amelia's body before she reached out to take hold of a strand of the girl's hair and rub it between her scaled fingers.

"You'd think that people capable of creating a body this advanced would have the intelligence needed to put in safeguards to prevent their creation evolving beyond what they can control. Unless of course that was their plan from the beginning, but there's not many mortals who'd invest such amounts of resources and effort into something which they would just release afterwards." Greed was generally speaking a stronger motivator for mortals than curiosity, which made sense as a survival trait.

Straightening up she took a step away and turned to look at the door. Amelia and Luna both had something to say about what was inside, although it was derailed when the two of them entered a short conversation about the ability to sense rotting meat. Akeya could smell rotting meat quite well, but it was interesting to hear the fairy explain her life sensory abilities... right up until the point where she explained that she could if not sense at least notice Akeya's presence while she was making herself non-existent.

The dragoness's head whipped around to stare at Luna, her eyes narrowing until they were nearly slits. Those emerald orbs, which were already hard and piercing with their glare, turned even harder than usual as if gems. For the first couple of seconds nothing happened as Akeya was processing what the fairy exactly had said, but then her appearance began to shift. Both light and dark amplified and strengthened, resulting in her entire form looking as if someone had turned up the contrast to ridiculous levels. It didn't take long before she looked like she was shaped out of light and dark rather than flesh and blood, which in a certain way was true.

Neither light nor dark held life. They were forces of the world which might interact with life but weren't part of it themselves. Akeya, perhaps moreso than most other dragons, was very good at becoming part of the elements that were a part of her. She'd already been good at hiding her very presence even when she only had the dark to work with, but back then there was an unbalance because there was only dark. When she used both light and dark she could balance them out, turning herself into something akin to a conscious manifestation of the two forces... and hopefully be more successful in hiding herself from the life-sensing fairy.

This state lasted for a dozen seconds, the dragoness clearly trying something out before she finally allowed her body to return to normal. Light and dark returned to their default state and the scaled assassin no longer looked like some kind of Eldbitch entity with an otherworldly -albeit mesemerizing- appearance.

"The house itself is only an entrance. Directly inside there is only a staircase leading downwards which extends deep underground. At the end of it there's a larger space but whoever build the place has set up a system to jam sensory abilities. While I can tell that it's a large space exact details are obscured." Apparently the dragoness had decided to not talk about what just happened and just move on with the job. She frowned as she folded her arms and tapped her upper arm with a clawed finger. "While we could break in from a different position there's a good chance that the man we're looking for would make himself scarce." Unfolding her arms she signed and gave a shrug which was a mixture between indifference and resignation. "Might as well play along for now."

She began to walk towards the house, her tail swaying behind her with every step as she looked over her shoulder. "You can come with me if you want, but don't try anything funny." Just because she knew Luna didn't mean she trusted the fairy completely. There was practically nobody she didn't at least somewhat suspect of following their own agenda which could clash with hers.

WC: 999
PWC: 1,876/11,000
TWC: 3,487/22,000

Luna was glad by some miracle Akeya was not aggressive about her description. For the Nature Fairy, a love life was hard to maintain let alone find. Luna tended to gather responsibility, and be attracted to bad situations so she tends to be catious at times. An intelligent and beautiful Dragoness seemed to fall under all her preferred qualities and more. While Amelia was used to being studied, at a request to hold still she ceased all motion, including her ambient subtle ones like appearing to breath.

However when Akeya stared right at Luna, fear and slight confusion shot through the fairy. "Does she expect me to drop dead?" She thought as she gulped. If the climate were any warmer she'd be sweating. "Sorry, by species I am a life specialist. Blessing and a curse. She said as she watched the display, slightly worried that there would be a surprise attack along the way and was grateful that things did not turn out that way.

Luna concurred with Akeya's thoughts about how this seemed very much like a set up and following through would be better then trying to find another course of action. "Agreed, since there's a sensory jam we can't tell if this residence is being used as an entrance to a subterranean network or serves to lead to a gateway to a pocket space, and could be anything in between as well."

Amelia nodded as the two partners followed the Dragoness. "Spacial magic isn't in either of our repertoires despite us having the base components, maybe Akeya's. But as for earth digging, we could in theory do it, but the problem is getting the right spirit of Luna's to cooperate. Too cold for Tierra, Aegis will take time, Zixcor might wanna fight Akeya instead. Also Woody has a 15% chance of being to hungover so a random spirit occurs, only good Chuck would be is turning himself into a shovel."

Luna coyly smirked at Amelia. "Got more tricks then those guys for making holes, I can also make a fair bit of acid. Besides, I'm sure even if we hit deep down, we wouldn't just be able to sneak in. Odds are there is an enchantment to protect from intruders, after all, there are only two types of jobs. Simple tasks, or elaborate waves of complexity before you can even set foot in the area. This reeks of convolution." Luna said as the group had reached the only door leading down, and walking down the stairs Luna couldn't help but wonder why such a set of stairs was built. "However the only thing on my mind is what really awaits us at the end of these stairs."


"My guess is probably rats or some form of creature that can survive easily or other underground creature that can survive in close quarters with out massive fuel needs, and it's probably close quarters so unless either of you plan on shrinking, wings might be a bad idea for the meantime." Amelia kept note of the distance as the group descended the long staircase, worried about Luna's mental state. "But Luna, are you sure you're not going to go all, crazy like you did on that space job?" She asked concerned, but Luna shrugged off those concerns. "Different circumstances, that was like keeping a fish out of water and plunging it into poisoned water. This is different, there is ambient life force, and at the moment I can hear plenty of fungus and shrooms. Plus I got a new spirit assigned thanks to Tierra pulling strings."

Once the group reached the bottom, Luna extended the palm of her hand out as pink liquid oozed out of the palm of her hand before dropping onto the floor, and seeping through the cracks of the stone tiles and and burrowed into the crevice before the twisted summoning root extended and untwisted revealing the summoning circle. "I call forth from the Forest Beyond the Horizon, the spirit that whispers in the grass, Plantette!"

Out the summoning circle, the five inch green haired spirit came floating out before the circle disappeared and the root crumbled. Luna extended her hand for the spirit to gently land. "Hey Luna, tight quarters, with a-" She looked over at the dragoness and the Gynoid. "This a four way or do you just need grass?" Luna's face turned red immediately. "Just grass, please, we're in a subterranean labyrinth. Some grass wood make it easier for me to move and fight if need be. Why would you assume the other thing?" Plantette nodded and her flower, causing green sparkles to spread down the hallway causing grass to grow quickly. "Because you're one of the most pent up Nature Fairies in existence and you're in a dimly lit tight space with a dragon and a animated doll, I'm friends with your mother's spirits. Spirits do talk you know. Like your sister is half dragon, a rarity that she wasn't converted to either race given how things can turn out sometimes."

Luna sighed while Amelia was just bursting with laughter watching the scene, noting that the stone floor slowly was overcome with grass. "Well, this can't get any better. Luna, you're spirits are a hoot to deal with at times." Luna sighed as she wished she never even got out of bed this morning. "I'm not that pent up."

WC 888
PWC 2499/11,000
TWC  4387/22,000

The fact that Amelia stopped moving in her entirety upon being told to hold still didn't pass by unnoticed. The dragoness filed it away in her head even as she wondered about the possible explanations. The most likely reason was that, as lifelike as the blonde might be, she was still designed as one central unit which then controlled the body. Hardly surprising when they'd gone so overboard with the lachrima which acted as her two cores, but it still implied that her physical integration wasn't too high. Did she have the same kind of sensory input as organic beings? The knowledge-hungry dragon would have liked to study her a bit longer, but right now there was a job to do.

More annoying was the fact that apparently Luna could pick up on her presence even when she rendered herself a non-presence. Akeya knew that it was most likely physically impossible to be completely undetectable but she still saw it as one of the more important missions in her life to make it as difficult as possible for others to figure out where she was or even if she was present in the first place. She'd have to look into it later... if the fairy could sense life she'd have to take a step further into the realm of not being a living creature at all. Risky, but possibly worth the risk...

Akeya nodded as Luna proposed that for all they knew the area beyond the staircase might very well be a pocket dimension. It would combine well with the jamming effect that was covering the area. "I suspect that if we tried to get in using anything other than the intended entrance we wouldn't find anything. Whoever designed this for us didn't want to make it easy." She frowned as Amelia explained that the idea of digging would present its own difficulties, apparently in the form of Luna's spirits not necessarily being very reliable. Given what she remembered of that princess the dragoness wasn't very surprised, but it was still annoying. "Having to deal with the whims of other creatures makes summoning sound like more of a hassle than it needs to be." Akeya had little interest in the field of summoning herself, preferring to hone her own abilities, but even if she did she'd have a strong preference for summoning creatures with a limited will so controlling them would be straightforward.

In response to Luna's question about what they might find Akeya shrugged, although she did have an idea or two. Whoever it was that was calling adventurers to this trap of a building was hunting for powerful mages, so most likely they either wanted a high bounty or they needed help with something which you couldn't just rely on average adventurers for. Although at the end of the day the only way to be sure would remain going in there and checking it out for yourself.

She quirked an eyebrow at the gynoid when she suggested getting rid of the wings. Akeya's draconic pair were already neatly folded up on her back, and she figured that if they were to become a problem she could get rid of them later on as well. For now she'd just keep leading the way downstairs while studying the place for traps. So far, so good...

"There's a world of difference between being trapped in a manmade tunnel underground and being stuck on an alien planet with an entirely different ecosystem. She'll be fine." These words came out curtly as Amelia asked after Luna's health, the dragoness figuring that a little bit of underground adventuring wouldn't trigger the fairy. The main reason why Constantinopel had been such a problem was because the entore world had a different essence balance.

When she noticed that Luna was preparing to summon another entity the assassin came to a halt, eyes on the hallway in front of them but occasionally glancing back to see what was going on with the fae and her companions. It looked like she had summoned another fae to supply her with plant material she'd use in case combat broke out... and the summoned one immediately began to take things out of context.

Frankly speaking Akeya found the entire situation mildly amusing, but she didn't want to loiter too long listening to the pink-haired lady arguing with her own summons. "For the record, my sense of smell is also rather good." What was meant with that line would be left up in the air as Akeya returned her attention to the hallway in front of them. Narrowing her eyes she spotted skittering in the distance, which quickly became closer and more numerous. "Looks like the actual testing is starting now. Hold still for a moment."

From the wide area beyond a large amount of scarabs came flying towards the three of them, their mandibles clicking as clearly they weren't the harmless type. The dragoness lifted one hand, making some motions with it before stabbing the air with her index finger.

In front of the advancing wave of scarabs the air distorted, and when the scarabs began to touch the affected area a lance or light shot through them. Given their mindless attitude they didn't slow down or retreat, resulting in all the hundred scarabs quickly being completely dead.

Akeya dispelled the barrier she'd put up, then glanced back towards Luna. "If you're that pent up there's ways to deal with that, but focus on what's ahead of us for now... and watch out for ambushes behind us." Her scaled and clawed feet carried her deeper into the underground complex, the hallway widening as it led up to a large room. Seeing a trap ahead Akeya sliced the tripwire with a dark blade, only to come to an abrupt halt as a large boulder dropped down from the ceiling in front of her and blocked the passageway with a loud, solid sound.

"Great."

WC: 991
PWC: 2,867/11,000
TWC: 5,378/22,000

"Oh for the love of Shirain I'm not pent up." Luna exclaimed in slight frustration as Akeya seemed to believe the summoned spirit over her. Plantette giggled as she sat on Luna's shoulder. Since she scarcely saw her own kin due to Nature Fairies being a rarer breed, all her information came from her mother and what her spirits know. She hated being totally compared to the average. Luna could feel the Scarabs life force as they died, one after the other. "Sorry about this, but your life was not in vein." She apologized to the scarabs she passed them. "I think you're promising that a little too soon Lulu, we don't even know what we're finding. We're expecting an old man but we could find a Succubus trying to convert to being a nun. That isn't fun to walk in on."

Luna was confused by that statement. "What sort of job was that?" She had to ask as the temptation was too great to resist. "Figuring out why there was a flux of massive holy and unholy energy in a Minstrel town. Angel trying to serve hell and Succubus trying to be a good nun. Neither side wanted them after that so we had to slay both after too many ripples. Sorta why I dislike holy and unholy, unlike light and dark they can't find any balance without third party assistance."

Luna stared confused at the Gynoid. "Pray tell how did that end? It's rare for such an event to happen when two beings try to switch alignments and the collective discord effects an area." Amelia recalled the events. "The only thing that could happen appeasing all parties involved, they both became human and as a result of the spell relinquished their bodies ability to handle ethernano. Humanization magic, some gnarly stuff, only good for making things human but there's always a price."

Luna chose to leave the conversation end there, she did not even want to think about someone casting such a magic onto her. When she first discovered her fairy origins she might have run cash in hand to anyone with the sort of magic Amelia just described, but now she couldn't even imagine someone doing such a thing to her. She prayed for a distraction but Akeya appeared to cut something Luna knew what that meant, a trap. She nearly jumped as the bolder crashed down onto the floor. "A boulder? a bit cliche..." Luna said sheepishly. "Is it weird I was hoping for Lava Ants?" Amelia said slightly bored, while Plantette shrugged even less impressed by the boulder. "I was hoping for a drunk goat, something original."

Luna was dumbfounded by the spirit's expectations in regards to what else could have been sprung as a trap. "At least Amelia kept within realistic, how would a drunken goat stay alive and drunk up there?" Luna sighed as she looked down at the boulder and ran her fingers along the ground. "Lulu, think you can move this thing? It is on the grass..." Amelia asked, she knew Luna was skilled in the art of evolving but this seemed to be a questionable area even for someone like a Nature Fairy. Listening to the grass underneath, Luna herself looked puzzled on the issue. "Perhaps, it's worth a try but I can only evolve short grass so much, especially when it's recently magically generated regular grass."

Luna took a deep breath and calmed her mind as she tensed her right hand into a fist. At first nothing seemed to happen but soon the bolder started to shake and soon after the bolder raised up three inches off the ground. Amelia chuckled nervously. "Well that was, something..."
Plantette shrugged as she expected as much. "Grass can only do so much, especially when it's magically generated. This might boost nature powers but even plant evolution powers have a limit."

Amelia nodded in acknowledgment seeing the logic."Even a master artisan requires materials of quality. Anyways, speaking of plants, Luna, can't you use that pine driver to drive this boulder home?" Luna shook her head. "Don't got a good angle, if I don't use it the right way, in this case I'd need to get underneath it, It won't go straight up, and we risk digging into the structure of the labyrinth and there might be consequences to that, best bet would be to return it back up there and make sure it stays there for a while."

"Directly underneath you say." Amelia said with a devilish smirk on her face, Plantette soon joined in as she realized what Amelia was getting at. "Oh, right, if only you could fit under there in that three inch gap." Luna's eyes widened as she realized what they were implying. "Oh for the love of Shirain..." She said exhausted. "Well Akeya's a strong combatant and needs to conserve her strength, you're a support based unit given that that's your strong suit and we already have two skilled combatants here. Look I know about your little weakness, it isn't exactly a secret about how you can't exactly transform back quickly."

Luna sighed and moved Plantette to the top of Amelia's head before she slid the Lightning Dragon eye, the citron like ring on her finger to the tip of her finger as she braced herself. She flicked the ring into the air before her body glowed in a light pink light before quickly compressing with her wings extended, her clothing shifted into a dress of red flower petals. "Alright, happy?" She said as the ring fell onto her, looking more like an over-sized necklace no the small frame. Amelia snickered but Luna sighed and flew underneath the boulder, commanding the grass blades to move around as she crawled through the space until she got to the dead center.

Concentrating, a pink liquid oozed out of her hand before dropping off, expanding itself before it burrowed into the ground. Luna flew back as fast as she could before a pine tree sprouted out from underneath the boulder and pushed it back into place, clearing the path with the exception of the tree in the middle. Luna flew up and landed on Amelia's shoulder. "There, the path is cleared."

WC 1040
PWC 3539/11,00
TWC 6406/ 2200

"As you say then." Akeya wasn't going to get any deeper into the topic of Luna's pent up-ness. It wasn't really a very relevant topic currently since they were busy investigating this strange traphouse which they'd been invited to. Although she'd already resigned herself to the fact that working together with the fairy almost definitely meant she'd have to put up with a lot of talking. Amelia in particular gave the impression that she never shut up if given the chance. Maybe being an artificial creature which had evolved past its restrictions had resulted in her wanting to make as much use of the fact that she had her own opinions as possible.

The job with the angel and the demon did sound interesting, however, but mostly because Akeya had an interest in conflicting elements and how they resolved themselves. According to Amelia the essences of holy and vile were incapable of achieving a balance, unlike light and dark. "I believe there are stories of creatures which were a mixture of diabolic and divine, but I'd have to look it up to be certain." She didn't have a specific interest in the forces of heaven and hell, but they were one of the best examples of polar opposite aside from light and dark. In fact light was usually assocaited with heaven and dark with hell.

Although she couldn't help but snort when Amelia talked about humanization magic. Given how proud humans were of their naked, pink selves it wasn't a surprise that such magic existed, but the proud dragoness considered it human vanity to think that the human form was something to aspire to. Of course others could say the same about her draconic self... although possibly not to her face.

"I highly doubt that the one who designed this place had creativity as a high priority." She remained silent for several seconds after that before adding. "Although even from the perspective of efficiency, a boulder isn't one of the best options." Maybe it worked against simple fools, but against powerful mages you wanted something which gave you less opportunity to react and which had better odds of bypassing magical defences. Then again, the designer didn't necessarily want to kill them...

While the other three argued about how to best deal with the boulder the dragoness turned her attention to the tunnel beyond the rock. There still was some kind of magic in place which was making it hard to make out details, but the many irregularities made it clear that there were going to be many more traps... and a lot of moving figures as well. Some of them pretty big. The scarabs were easy to deal with, but the others might also want to get involved if a bigger fight were to break out.

Akeya tuned back in to her companions when Luna turned into her fairy form, the dragoness raising an eyebrow as the pink-haired beauty was suddenly incredibly tiny. She watched with some interest as Luna walked underneath the boulder and made a pine tree form to knock it back up, freeing up the path and allowing them to proceed. "That works. Good job." With that said Akeya stepped forward, walking around the tree and heading deeper into the complex.

The next hundred meters were uneventful, but then there was a crossroad. The tunnel branched off into three paths, one of them looking partially destroyed with rubble not so much obstructing the way forward as just making the entire place messy and unstable looking. The other two paths were still in good shape, but there was something wrong with the air that made it difficult to see very far ahead. Of course given the distinct lack of lights in this tunnel vision was something of an issue anyway, at least for those without darkvision. Akeya didn't need light and she hadn't bothered to check whether the others did.

"Hmmm... which path to take..." There weren't any immediate signs which passage would be the best choice, especially since it wasn't even necessarily clear what the exact objective here was. Find the person responsible for all this, or find whatever it was all these traps were supposed to hide. Straightforward but not exactly abundant with clues.

Akeya looked over her shoulder at the other three. "I suspect that the three of you would rather stick together. Whether you follow me or not is up to you." Tapping her clawed finger against her scaled arm she thought about it for a couple of seconds longer, then headed for the rough-looking tunnel. It was the only one of the three with any unique features to it, so at the very least she could see where it led.

As expected the rubble quickly proved itself to be quite the nuisance. Parts of the floor were missing and mysteriously enough there didn't appear to be any ground underneath. Other parts of the floor were sticking upwards at odd angles, forming spikes and jagged rocks. The ceiling also was a mess, showing the dirt of the underground beyond with stone fragments and dust spread out over the floor below. There were also parts where the walls appeared to be made purely out of spikes, and even a part where one wall had seemingly just fallen over, requiring the dragoness to forcibly push it aside before she could pass through.

She could also find various signs of traps which hadn't survived whatever had been done to this hallway. Tripwires which snapped, arrow walls which were jammed, collapsing floors which were stuck due to parts of it already having collapsed. Akeya couldn't sense any signs of magic having been responsible for this, so most likely some powerful creature had been causing trouble around here. Why the other parts of the labyrinth weren't messed up she wasn't entire sure... maybe it was limited in its range? But then why would the creator of this place allow it to damage even one part of the maze to such extent.

What brought the dragoness to a halt was the sound of growling in the distance. Pushing some rubble to the side with her tail Akeya tilted her head, her finned ears widening as she concentrated on her hearing. That sound was very familiar, but...

"Why would there be wolves down here?" Scarabs she could accept because those lived in dark places such as underground. But wolves? They were completely out of their element in here.

WC: 1,077
PWC: 3,944/11,000
TWC: 7,483/22,000

Luna blushed as she was complemented by the dragoness. She was grateful that at the very least someone wasn't forcing her to do anything uncomfortable. "Thanks.. it's probably safer to put the traps back where they came from, in case they trigger secondary measures." She said in response.A thought had recently crossed Luna's mind about an alternative to solving the same problem. She looked up at Plantette curiously. "Wait a minute, you can create large mushrooms that would be plenty strong enough to move the boulder." In response the small plant spirit pretended to check a watch. "Oh look at the time, gotta go!" She said before hopping off the Gynoid's head as her small body turned into green energy that disippated into small green specs of light that slowly faded out of existence.

Amelia sighed as she was really wondering what sort of spirits Luna was bound with. "Luna, you're spirits are just, odd." She said not wanting to rehash the same conversation she had with the fairy many times in the past. However as the group approached a divide in the paths, Luna and Amelia were in silent agreement to not split up. "If it's all the same we should probably stick together, since we have no specifics of this place it will be harder to reach each other if one of us ran into trouble." Luna said as Amelia moved to follow Akeya. "Well just you really, as you're the only one without the ability to turn into an element. Akeya's got her shadow morph, I got my Lightning body. "

Amelia paid close attention to make sure she was a safe distance behind Akeya, as to make sure she was not hit by the tail as it cleared through the rubble of the maze. Luna was starting to get concerned as she was wondering if there would be a corpse soon as she was picturing that there was someone else who tried to come this way before them and that's what triggered the traps and lead to the damage. "This place just creates way too many questions. Are we not the first to come down here, or did the traps not age well and go off prematurely? I want to suggest it was some sort of animal but what could survive this and live down here for so long?" Luna pondered out loud as she figured it could very well be a mixture of any of the possibilities.

When Akeya stopped to hear the sound of growling, Amelia was starting to doubt that Dragon's abilities. "Did your eardrums fully materialize yet? It wouldn't make sense for wolves to be placed in here. If we were in a forest I'd get it, but canines aren't usually a dungeon surviving animal unless they are magical constructs. Well either that or they are inbred cannibals."

Luna looked confused at the Gynoid, wondering just exactly where the trail of logic was coming from. "Have you seen that before?" She asked hesitantly, part of her was scared to hear the answer. Amelia nodded as she recollected events where jobs took her to various castles or other residences of nobles. "A few snobbish lords or similar nobles often have a room or a pit filled with wolves or some other predator to 'feed traitors, criminals, or others' to. However they didn't always have something to feed them and they were forgotten, so the beasts sometimes had to make do with what they had."

Luna shivered at the story as it was slightly unnerving but the scary part was she was able to see how such a thing could happen and was disgusted that anyone that would neglect animals in such a way. However in the distance she was able to sense the life force of several creatures in the distance. "Regardless, Akeya isn't wrong, I can sense the wolves life force, meaning they are indeed wolves." She said as she looked down the hall focusing her mind as she tried to hone in on the Life Force of the canines, to see if there was something she could differ. "Well, only other thing I can tell at this point by life force is they are mildly agitated and hungry." Luna stated, however there was one more problem bothering her. Even if wolves were cliche for animal based traps in castles, underground labyrinths were a different environment. "As for why they are here, I have a feeling they won't tell me if I asked but if I were a betting girl I'd wager it on either being they were intended for a trap, or they wandered in through another entrance or breach."

Amelia was just about ready to say she has gone insane at this point as she was wondering what sort of architect built this place. Either he was too weak with the structure, made extra entrances that are outside of the Talonian city limits, or was a sloppy with his decisions for obstacles. She let out a deep breath and rubbed her eyes for a moment. "Well anyways, what are we gonna do, capture and have Luna interrogate these wolves? She might have a point on it proving fruitless, so we should just knock them out of our way." Amelia picked up Luna off her shoulder and handed her to the dragonness before cracking her knuckles. "I got this." She said as she looked down the hall and was able to see the wolves in the distance.

"Luna's scent doesn't always piss off or alert and the only thing that people smell from me is my laundry detergent so I should be good for a sneak attack." She said as yellow sparks started to emit from her body and slowly turn white as the outline of her reactor glowed through her body and dark dress for a moment before dimming, her eyes remained glowing a white color. The near blank aura of the artificial life seemed to get filled with a holy energy. "Lightning of the Gods..." She decreed as she pointed her right index and middle fingers towards the wolves who took notice of the light she gave off. A light blue ball of energy started to form between the two fingers giving off sparks.

Luna started to fly into the air and made sure to be behind Akeya. After journeying for a while with the Lightning gynoid, she knows both the strengths and shortcomings of their skills and combat style. "This ain't gonna be good, Amelia's a skilled open space fighter, but she's more prone to friendly fire in closed space if she uses the wrong technique, that Lightning of the gods extends her range."

"Three, two, and-" She counted before the ball of energy turned into a light blue bolt of lightning striking towards the wolves seemingly missing them as it went between two wolves and struck the ground causing an explosion creating a small mist. The area seemed to get colder and as the mist cleared, the wolves could be seen stuck in ice, some with just their heads out of the ice and others were frozen solid. However two wolves weren't willing go just stay down easily as they were thrashing against the ice, and managed to break free and continue their charge.

Amelia sighed and once more pointed the same two fingers out as a light red ball of energy formed, she watched as the wolves kept moving side to side. She waited till they were close enough to eachother and released the energy sending an immense red lightning bolt that struck through one's right front leg shoulder, and the shoulder of the other's right hind leg and pierced through even the block of ice.

The wolves howled in pain as they each lost one of their legs, and the block of ice started to crack before crumbling into pieces, leaving all the wolves unable to fight. The White aura Amelia had dissipated as she returned to normal. Luna shuddered, mostly from the cold, partly for the brutality. "There, cleared." Amelia said to the other two. Luna exerted herself and two drops of a pink ooze from her hand onto the ground that quickly burrowed in before two white rose like plants quickly sprouted out. They opened up to reveal the yellow droplets in the shape of tears. "Sorry about the amputation, eat these and you'll feel better at least." She said trying to at least make up for something.

She knew that if she restored them to full health right away they would just attack again, so she decided to at least give them a chance to recover without putting the group in danger. "We should keep going though..."

WC 1455
PWC 4994/11,000
TWC 8938/ 22,000

If Akeya noticed Luna's blush she didn't comment on it. Of course it was quite likely that she didn't notice it, given that the fairy was currently rather small. When she suggested putting the traps back where they came from the dragoness raised an eyebrow, but otherwise refrained from commenting. In her head she thought about how once a trap was triggered resetting it probably didn't matter much, but she didn't think it could hurt either so she just let Luna do as she pleased while she focused on the way ahead. Although she did sigh when Luna's 'helpful' spirit disappeared the moment it was pointed out that she could actually have done something to contribute to this little expedition. "I suppose that's the fae for you." It was no secret that their kind was rather quirky... and often dangerous because of that.

As expected her unexpected companions decided to stick with her. Akeya just hoped that they wouldn't make things difficult: so far they hadn't been a problem but they didn't know anything about this location. They might be helpful or they might be a detriment down the line. She had yet to encounter anything which suggested that this was a place where she needed to be fully optimized in her approach to succeed, but at the same time she didn't like leaving things up to chance. Best to just stay on guard and keep an eye out. At the very least the two of them could help if they encountered other straightforward traps. Did the person who made this place have ideas beyond pitfalls and boulders?

Her brow furrowed as she considered Luna's question about the nature of this hallway, which clearly had been ravaged by something. The suggestion that the traps had gone off... "It's possible that this was done by poorly constructed traps but I doubt it. There's a certain irregularity to the damage which indicates it was done by something living... although there could be traps down here which focus on utilizing living or animated threats." A boulder dropping from the ceiling wasn't exactly precise but the impact it had on its surroundings was pretty straightforward. Irregular patterns indicated a constantly shifting nature, which in turn indicated something alive... or a fascimile of life.

"My ears are fine, and I'd suggest that you be careful whose senses you distrust." As a dragon Akeya's senses were quite well developed, and she didn't like having some animated construct doubting them. "When I say that I hear wolves you shouldn't be questioning my ears, but why there are wolves down here." When Luna and Amelia then entered an argument about inbred cannibal wolves Akeya resisted the urge to facepalm: she didn't think of herself as easily exasperated but her two companions on this trip were constantly quibbling. At least that's what it felt like to her.

Folding her arms she watched Amelia prepare to take care of the wolves. So far the blonde gynoid hadn't really displayed any of her capabilities, but given the materials used to create her body and her power source she should be capable of some interesting feats. At least that was something that the dragoness wanted to see, which is why she silently allowed Amelia to take care of things. And Luna helpfully gave some exposition on Amelia's abilities... and the gynoid's habit of causing trouble when forced to fight in small spaces. "That shouldn't be an issue." Unless Amelia really lost all semblance of control over the fight Akeya should be able to offset anything which came close enough to threaten her. Being powerful had its advantages even when you weren't showing off.

As the gynoid first created a freezing mist and then some kind of lightning which could tear through limb and ice the dragoness raised her eyebrows, but didn't move otherwise until the fight was over. The wolves clearly had been outclassed, so it didn't take very long. Once it was clear that the wolves were no longer an issue Akeya stepped forward. "I would have imagined that the companion of a fairy would be more concerned with not harming animals, but I guess it's difficult for a construct to feel bad about that kind of thing." Her voice was indifferent, analytical, as she stepped past the wolves and continued onwards. "That said I doubt that's the worst we'll run into. Given what Luna sensed of their mental state most likely what forced them to behave like this was something more dangerous further down the partway which forced them to flee." She assumed that the fairy could tell when wild animals were consumed by either disease or madness, so for them to be this aggressive when they were, at worst, hungry and agitated... Most likely they were running away from something.

Before Luna stated that they should keep going Akeya was already walking ahead, leaving it up to Amelia and the fairy to catch up with her as the dragoness peered into the darkness ahead. The tunnel wasn't entirely straight, so she couldn't see much further than the next bend. However that was enough to tell her that the damage wasn't diminishing. Whatever had happened here had been extensive. Either one big rampage or maybe it was something which had taken a while? How long had this place been here anyway? She hadn't heard of it before now, so either it was a recent construction or it had been very well hidden.

However Akeya's suspicion that there was something worse deeper into the tunnel was quickly proven to be correct, as this time she heard a snorting and heavy breathing. It sounded rough, coarse, and heavy, and it put the dragoness on guard. She didn't sense anything which posed a true danger, but nonetheless she could already tell that this was going to be a mite more problematic than the wolves. Or more than a mite, depending on what exactly was ahead. "I think we're about to meet what caused all the destruction." The breathing certainly sounded like it belonged to something big and strong.

Ahead the tunnel widened, turning into something akin to a room... with many bones literring the heavily damaged floor. And from the other side of the room several huge figures stepped forth, snorting and grunting as their hooves smashed against the cracked stone ground. Minotaurs, large and muscular, their pungent smell quickly filling the air and assaulting the twilight dragon's keen nose. Every time they exhaled a cloud of warm, moist air escaped from their nostrils, and big axes and clubs dragged over the floor. In total there were four of them, rolling their shoulders as their tiny dark eyes focused on the dragoness. There were some scars on their bodies, and bite marks around their furred legs, but overall they looked to be in fine health and ready to rumble... and from what Akeya could smell, perhaps more than that. She certainly was glad they were wearing loincloths.

"Minotaurs have notoriously bad tempers, so it's no surprise they'd lash out at their surroundings." Akeya's tail slammed against the ground behind her as she narrowed her eyes and placed her feet a bit wider apart. From what she'd seen Amelia's lightning was potent indeed but these creatures looked like it would take more than a bit of ice and lightning to put them down. They were mythical creatures, powerful and extraordinary tough. "Unfortunately they also have a fascination for females, so watch out."

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PWC: 5,192/11,000
TWC: 10,186/22,000

Amelia scoffed as she was not sure if she was being called a sociopath by the dragoness. While both she and the twilight dragon knew Luna's stance and views on life.I'm no mere construct, I am not at the mercy of anyone's control, and I do have a conscience and emotions. As far as I'm concerned I put them out of their misery. Not to mention better to leave an enemy unable to fight instead of being able to blindside you." Luna however was flying to the side, not wanting to take any side in the matter as she really did not want a fight to break out between the two. For one thing she practically lived with Amelia which would make the fallout awkward to deal with either way, and she really did not want to make a negative impact on the dark dragon.

However she was glad when the tension seemed to dissipate as the group was coming towards something that made Luna swallow her breath as she was trying to comprehend the radiant and complex signature. She held her tongue as she suspected it to be a mythical life form but she didn't want to alert the others on any premature suspicions. Her guess as to what it could be was most likely a chimera. She couldn't pin down the source to being like anything she sensed before but had parts that were familiar, all she knew for certain was it was far out of her reach for telepathic communication. She figured so long as she stuck near Akeya that she would be fine. She knew that the confines of this labyrinth made hosting large creatures difficult. 

However when the group approached the source of the destruction, Luna was close to dropping her jaw as her senses were overwhelmed by the sources. She couldn't believe her eyes as she saw the bovine headed humanoids and was almost ready to turn around. She knew that women and minotaurs were never a good mix and being able to rampage through the labyrinth to cause all the damage they saw, she knew this was not going to be easy. As Akeya warned them of the potential dangers of the beast's fixation, she was not too worried at the moment. "One sniff of me and they will know I'm about as much of a woman as a sack of fluff to them, and Luna's too small for them to notice, so that just leaves you as the only real woman they can see, and you can convert your entire body into shadows, I can turn into lightning, so I mean, no real danger there."

Luna scowled for a moment but not wanting to argue with the logic at the moment as she looked at the behemoths before her, slightly disgusted as they seemed to bother her senses of sight, hearing, and smell. "Honestly I was expecting a chimera, but minotaurs are slightly worse, they represent almost all of the worst parts about stereotypical masculinity heightened to beyond their peak. overly muscular, bad hygiene, hopped up on so much testosterone and steroids they are dominated by aggression and lust."

Amelia cocked an eyebrow as she personally found a contradiction in Luna's experiences but knew this wasn't the time or place to bring it up. "So Luna, are minotaurs in your range of persuasion?" Luna shook her head as she knew that any attempts wouldn't work. "Too close to human to commune with their mind, and even then I don't think they got the capacity for anything besides battle or conquest. Hence why there is a cliche of Minotaurs being in labyrinths." Luna admitted, before formulating a strategy in her mind as to how to deal with the two. From each of her hands pink liquid oozed out of her skin before expanding to the seed size after she flung them off, before burrowing into the ground forming two different summoning roots. "Alright, double feature..."

She focused herself as both roots opened up, her gaze was on the left root first. "I call forth from the Forest beyond the Horizon, the warrior princess hunting in the dark, Vita!" Her gaze then switched back to the other summoning root that wound itself as the magic circle formed. "I call forth from the forest beyond the horizon, the tempered flame that pierces through the night! The centauress archer, Savi!" Out of both circles the two archer spirits arose, the blonde princess Vita and the snow white haired centauress sprung into as the roots that opened the gateway crumbled. Each looking around at the scenery until both their eyes locked on the opposite summoning spirit. "Oh, Savi, it's you, glad to see you for once. Did you ever get your iLac fixed?" Vita said in a bitter tone. "Vita, I said I'll let you know when it's fixed, trust me, remember when you said the same thing about our private oasis?!"  The centauress responded, scoffing under her breath. Luna was not sure what to think of this situation as she felt in the middle of some sort of dispute. "Um, ladies..." She interjected as both turned to her, trying to hide their mutual loathing in the presence of the fairy they are both bound with. "Oh, Luna, darling how are you?" Both spirits noticed the minotaurs and grunted in annoyance. "Minotaurs. Great. Just when I thought I already saw the most annoying force in the room." She said passive aggressively. "Oh, where do you see a mirror?" Vita replied snarky. Luna sighed as she had a feeling this was going to last the whole fight. She coughed twice to get the attention of the nature spirits again. "Yes, well, I was hoping you would help by distracting them, circling and shooting." She explained, both spirits nodded as Savi took the lead, the centauress started circling the room at an intense pace as she drew flaming arrows from her blow of fire. "Try to keep pace, clearly you had no problem when it came to the Aera sisters!"  Vita grumbled as she ran around in a cocurrent pattern, carefully drawing and picking her targets, both archers fired at the minotaurs, trying to keep their focus.

"Oh I can keep up, just make sure you're aim is true, don't want another wildfire." She retorted to the other spirit, Luna and Amelia were slightly dumbfounded as they were trying to piece together what the conflict between the two spirits was about. Luna felt bold in taking a guess, slightly afraid of the answer. "Wait, are you two, a couple?" Vita scowled as she aimed for a minotaur and missed, nearly striking Savi who merely scoffed before shooting a flaming arrow that missed a minotaur and nearly struck the princess. "We'd know that if Savi could be straight and not beat around the bush!" Savi rolled her eyes at the princess's response to the question. "Well maybe if you were more available I'd be more comfortable making a decision!"

Amelia at this point was shaking her head as she was trying to determine what was going on betweeb the two spirits. "Luna, your spirits are just, weird. So are we going to need to play couples therapy while trying to fight incredibly dangerous mythical beasts?" Luna shrugged as she herself did not know the answer to that question. She never recalled either spirit mentioning the other whenever she summoned them so she assumed there was not going to be any conflict of interest. "At the very least they seem to be distracting the Minotaurs, but yes, probably. I can't seem to have normal spirits."

Amelia stood back as she watched Luna's summons steal the attention of the creatures, waiting for the right chance to strike. "Akeya, got any ideas on how to handle these guys?"

WC 1305
PWC 6299/11,000
TWC 11491/22,000

Akeya rolled her eyes when Amelia began to protest the dragoness's insinuations. Apparently the blonde didn't like the idea that the twilight dragon considered her uncaring about the sanctity of life. The fact that Akeya herself didn't have much with the idea that all life was sacred and should be cared for probably wouldn't change the gynoid's reaction much, although she hoped that Amelia wouldn't make too big a deal out of it. "And yet they are still alive." That was the only vocal response she gave before returning her focus to the path ahead of her. What Amelia made out of that was up to her, but the dragoness had more pressing matters to concern herself with.

Facing the minotaurs Akeya was more concerned with how to deal with these beasts than the opinion of her companions, but when Amelia declared that the dragoness was the only one who had to worry about the libido of the mythical mosnters she couldn't help but snort. "Cute. Just be careful." It was true that Amelia didn't smell like a living female and that might discourage a lot of beasts, but minotaurs were intelligent enough to both recognize that Amelia's shape was female, scent or not, and to realize that she didn't need to be a biological female for them to have fun with her. As for Luna... well, it wouldn't be the first time a minotaur decided that his own needs were more important than the health of a woman who was way too small.

She nodded as Luna explained that minotaurs could be considered the epitome of masculinity, especially the negative aspects. It was true that if you wanted a creature that represented the extremes of the male gender a minotaur was a good choice. When the fairy went on to explain that she couldn't use her nature as a fairy to get the minotaurs to behave the dragoness almost snorted again. "They're too bullheaded to be persuaded." Leaving the awful pun behind she continued. "They're usually not as intelligent as most sapient species but they're capable of independent problem-solving and once they've got a goal in mind it's nearly impossible to dissuade them. And unfortunately usually their goals boil down to killing and... well, conquering."

The minotaurs weren't just going to stand there as Luna summoned her new allies, the four greast beasts snarling as they began to charge. The ground shook as their large hooves smashed into the stone floor, sending broken fragments of bone flying everywhere and leaving cracks in the tiles. It looked like they might reach the trio of intruders before Luna finished her summoning, so Akeya snapped her fingers to create a blinding flash of light in each of their eyes to send the bulls reeling and howling before the dragoness followed up with a wave of dark that pushed them back to the other side of the room, giving Luna time to finish her own spell and for the two resulting summons to have their little spat. Akeya wasn't entirely sure that it was a great idea to get yet more women in a room with four rowdy minotaurs, but she supposed that it at least guaranteed that they'd do their job of distracting the beasts.

Of course the minotaurs weren't just going to ignore the fact that they were now being shot at. Rubbing the spots out of their eyes they growled as they began to charge Vita and Savi, each of the summons now having two very angry and big minotaurs running straight towards them swinging clubs and axes. Savi seemed to have the more enthusiastic bulls after her, which might have something to do with the fact that she was also a hooved creature which might draw the attention of the minotaurs.

At least that meant that Akeya, Luna and Amelia weren't in immediate trouble for the moment, but the dragoness shook her head as the gynoid once again made a snarky comment. "I suspect that if we don't help them soon they'll need a different kind of counselling."

Considering the situation the assassin shrugged. "Given how much of a hassle minotaurs are I don't think anyone would have any complaints if we took care of them in a more lethal fashion, so I might as well just take care of them myself." She did have nonlethal methods of taking care of nuisances, but her magic was at its strongest when she didn't need to bother with such restrictions.

"But you might want to tell your friends to duck when I'm ready." As she said that Akeya's left clawed hand began to glow brightly, while her right hand simultaneously began to emanate a deep dark. The light and dark both become stronger and stronger before the twilight dragon presses the palms of her hands together, the light and the dark negating each other. "Right about now, I mean."

Releasing her attack a nigh-invisible wave shot out from Akeya, dividing the world before her into two pieces horizontally. The division was so fine that it was nearly invisible, but its effects were unquestionable: everything that was hit by that line was divided. The minotaurs were no exception, the great bullmen continuing to run for several steps before the shifting of their weight caused their upper half to fall off and their corpses hit the ground with thundering thumps that made the room shake once more.

If one were to study the dividing line they'd see that everything which was cut by it had suffered zero structural damage: the two halves as determined by Akeya's spell had just neatly been separated, and where her magic had cut stone rather than organic tissue the cut surface was as smooth as stone could ever be.

Mythical or not, Akeya's Horizon was indiscriminate. The dividing line between light and dark would split everything and anything in an almost absolute manner. The dragoness herself just nodded and returned her hands to her sides as the room quickly began to be filled with the scent of four very dead minotaurs. "I suggest we keep moving."

WC: 1,018
PWC: 6,210/11,000
TWC: 12,509/22,000

Amelia was wondering at this point what Luna saw in the Dragoness as she was finding her cold and almost brutal. However she was able to sense the power of Akeya so Amelia knew better then to outright call out the dragon. Although the main reason Amelia knew she couldn't afford to contest the dragon was one of their elements was light, and Amelia was a master of Lightning. While she knew that meant she might never beat the dragon, she would be lying if she claimed not to be curious as to how it would play out. 

Meanwhile Luna paid close attention to Akeya's orders, slightly afraid of what the Dragon was planning. She knew from experience that there is nothing more dangerous then someone who masters opposing forces, she recalled tales of mages that wielded air and earth to master sand magic, fire and water to master steam, and even a speed and ice magic for impressive results. However none of them compared to Light and Dark due to the unpredictable nature of the two clashing, Luna knew that twilight was by far nothing to take lightly as it required careful timing and dual concentration and if it went wrong it meant a horrid explosion. "Ladies! hit the deck!"

Amelia and Luna made sure to be behind the dragoness out of her focus and sight, and the summoned nature spirits stopped their bickering for a moment when they heard Luna call out. Vita broke her running by suddenly turning and sliding, managing to get low and put distance between her and the minotaurs chasing after her. Meanwhile Savi seemed to slow down and let the two promiscuous minotaurs behind her, before she seemed to jump back and kick the two back with her hind legs before she fell over onto her side right before Akeya unleashed her twilight magic.

It was a moment when all four noticed the power of the dragon, but even more frightening was her precision with the magical power as she cleanly sliced the masculine beasts. As Amelia passed the lower half of one she whistled for a moment as she couldn't help but be impressed with the precision and cleanliness of the cut and examined the room, seeing a lack of extensive damage. "Damn, even a surgeon would be jealous of such precision. Even the spines are cut smoothly." She said before continuing to follow Akeya and Luna.

Meanwhile the two spirits slowly stood up, brushing off the dust their bodies before they began to follow the group. "Well, so you have no problems getting down here." Vita snarkly hissed towards the centauress as the two joined paths as they left the large room area. Savi responded by bumping into the princess, slamming her against a wall. "Oh, sorry, it's a narrow hallway." She said with a sarcastic tone in her voice. Amelia gritted her teeth as she was starting to get annoyed with the two bickering spirits. "Luna, are you going to get rid of them?" She asked but Luna was looking away, not wanting to get involved. "I'm not in the mood for dying, if I try getting in the way of them or send them back now, they might resist and the backlash for Nature Fairies is brutal for even one of them considering these aren't average spirits."

Amelia sighed as she was almost hitting her breaking point as the two spirits seemed to be in the midst of some terrible lover's quarrel. Amelia took a deep breath before she turned around and slapped Vita before jumping up and slapping Savi in the face. "Hey!" Both spirits said in unison as they prepared their bows. Amelia let out an exasperated breath. "Alright, I've had it with this weird lesbian archer thing, it's clear both of you want this to work out. I think I figured this out."  She started by looking at Vita, she had a feeling she knew what was wrong with the princess. "You need to be more clear and open with what you want, otherwise how the hell can she make up her mind!" She said directly, which Savi agreed with and Vita pouted a bit at the way she was treated. "Yeah, you see, she gets it!" Amelia turned towa/rds Savi, moving onto the problemscaused by the centauress. "As for you, make up your damn mind, it's clear you love her and if you want something, go for it, you're an archer for crying out loud and it's clear she was waiting. Take your shot for crying out loud!" She said aggressively, Vita snickered in response. "Finally someone gets it!" Amelia took a step back. "Seriously, if you guys just sit down and talk honestly, it's okay to have doubts, it's okay to be as insecure, you don't need to resort to clearly sexual turned aggressive tension bickering if you just sit down and talk!"

Amelia took a deep breath as she finally got that off her chest, both spirits turned to eachother. "She's sorta right, I don't wanna lose you but I need to know I can count on you, I've been burnt before." Vita took Savi by the hands as she looked deep into the eyes of the centauress. "I love you, no one else means as much to me. I will always be here for you." Savi sighed relief as she was glad the air was finally being cleared. "I think I'm ready, to make things, official. I suppose things got complicated when too many figures got involved, meddling in our own business." Vita nodded and both slowly turned towards Amelia with a look of annoyance. "Yeah... like her, trying to tell us how we need to run our lives and relationship." Vita said as she and Savi were finally on the same page, albeit on hating the one that got them to see a form of reason. "Yeah, like this sack of bolts that thinks she can tell us how to run our lives, we will do what we want. Go marry a toaster!"

Vita stuck out her tongue towards Amelia before the two began to disappear as their bodies turned into a green energy the dispersed into specs of light. Amelia was left with a dumbfound look on her face before she let out a long groan. "Luna, you're spirits... I swear to hell either kill them or me, please, I can't take much more of them. It's like some cruel monster put together the worst possible cast for a low rating sit-com that is made by the kid of some big wig and can't be canceled because of that!" Amelia whined as she caught back up with the two.

Luna sighed as she understood where Amelia was coming from, but she did not want to disrespect her spirits. "That's not fair, Aegis and Chuck are pretty cool." She said as she tried to keep a balanced perspective. Amelia rolled her eyes at that response. "What of the rest?" Amelia said inquisitively. "Aegis and Chuck are pretty cool." Luna repeated herself. Amelia threw her hands in the air stressed. "I swear, sometimes I feel like my self destruct is kept from me so I can experience this cruel joke you call summoning magic. They either come with drama, or varying degrees of drunk, Akeya have you ever seen summoning spirits less reliable then Luna's?"

Luna bit her tongue as she had enough at this point, her small form glowed in a pink light before enlarging with her wings retracting into her back and her clothing changing back to her human attire she had on earlier. "Don't bring her into this, remember back then, you came to me, asking for me to hold your keys and join me in this line of work. I told you my spirits were a bit much. I swear to Shirain, they aren't always that bad." Amelia huffed, she always held her tongue on Luna's spirits before but at some point the artificial being hit a breaking point.

  "Yeah, Woody's a real catch, you were halfway to dead with a sword between your ribs and you called on him, he was blacked out drunk five seconds after you summoned him. Tierra once bitched a bull into submission, Vita and Savi are the most cliche couple I ever met, savi is half decent on her own but Vita is honest to god worse to deal with then Tierra at times, Plantette is a lazy whore, and Zixcor actively tries to kill you for crying out loud! It is clear they're a cavalcade of rejects that no one wanted, probably due to your late blooming. I swear you're worsely blind to a poisoness relationship then Mai-" 

Amelia stopped midway as she saw the look on Luna's face overwhelmed sadness and anger. "That was too far Amelia, you know I can't control what spirits I am bound with and while you see them as nothing but faults, they were there whenever I needed someone to run to, yeah, they're not perfect, but they are practically family to me. When I needed them, even if they were at their worst, someone came." Luna shoved Amelia against a wall as she was not having anyone insult her spirits. While anyone could take shots at her but she was the type of person who would rather walk through hell herself for those she cared about. "When I was beaten into a corner, they tried, they fought to try and pierce through worlds to save my life but the curse preventing magic wouldn't allow the forced summoning root, but they were watching, they wanted to save my life, save the little girl who was being abused and beaten by someone who should have been looking out for her. That is a level of loyalty alone that makes them invaluable to me. They are not rejects, you hear me! They are my family, they have proved their use again and again even if they are not the best fighters. Even if I could I would never cast any of them aside."

Amelia scoffed at Luna's story, she threw off Luna's arm before starting to walk away. "Fine, I see you made your choice. I'll show myself out." Amelia said as she disconnected Luna from the Archive Link and started to walk away. "Amelia, don't walk like that, we can talk this through-" Amelia scoffed again. "Talk? You're weak minded and despite having the power over life itself you submit yourself to toxic relationships, the most healthy is your fetish of being dominated by dragons and somehow dragon slayers. Your sister is a leech in bail and your family is too cowardice by hiding behind religion to get her the actual help she needs, you forgave your mother after she abandoned you and left you at the mercy of Hakar, who drunkenly beat you nearly to death many times, in a situation where you were the one keeping him close out of some stupid sense of family. You rely on spirits that are nothing more then sanity killers when you yourself are often the most powerful being in the room most of the time yet you are afraid to use your own power. Face it, I think I'd rather lose my power then deal with you any longer." She said as she started to walk away only stopping for a moment, musing one last thought. "You even have the ability to control me like a puppet, but yet I still walk, but hey, look on the bright side, for once one of your bad relationships is cutting itself."

Luna gritted her teeth as she clenched her fist, she closed her eyes, a tear streaming down her cheek before she tapped her wrist rematerializating the control device before unbuckling it from her wrist and tossing it at the gynoid. "You wanna go, fine, go, go right to hell! I took you in when you had no where to go, I welcomed you as a partner when we were both screwed over and abandoned, if this is how you treat me after all we've been through, if that is how you honestly think of me, then you can go die in a scrap heap you ungrateful toaster. I never tried to give up on anyone I care about, my family, and if you don't consider yourself part of that, fine. I did, but I won't tolerate you treating mine like garbage if you want no part of it." No more words occurred between the two as Amelia started to walk again, trying to follow the path the group took on their way in. "Good luck Akeya. I'm out."

Luna took a deep breath as she recomposed herself, wiping away the tear shed. She was still working on a job so she knew she had to fight every urge to cry or fall apart as she felt the betrayal of Amelia's words sting deep like a heated knife that suddenly froze. She returned to following Akeya, deeply ashamed of what transpired and feeling incredibly betrayed. "I'm so sorry you had to witness that. Sorry if I'm just an inconvenience..." She said, rubbing her wrist where the control device once sat. "Guess that's all I am, inconvenient. Most of my life I spent out of the way or in the way, reading, trying to help everyone, not using the fullest extent of my power. Guess I am worthless like she was trying to say... I never think that power or direct confrontation is the best approach, but is that so wrong? I made it clear that I can't abandon my spirits, nor do I want to." Luna stopped for a moment to really think about her spirits, how they supported her as her nature powers developed.

"Call them whatever you want, whenever I needed them, they would be there. I nearly did a lot of stupid things yet Tierra never failed to talked me down when my life would be ruined, when I couldn't sleep Aegis crawled into bed and made the cruel nights easier, and while Woody may have a drinking problem, he was always there to stop me from developing one. They might have their quirks, but I wouldn't trade their loyalty for anything."

WC 2386
PWC 8685/11,000
TWC 14895/22,000

Akeya gave a nod of satisfaction as Amelia praised the precision of her attack. Horizon could be considered one of the strongest abilities she had, a perfect combination of light and dark to create a slicing attack which effectively embodied the concept of division. Some minotaurs weren't going to be able to resist that or even make the slice deviate from its path, and the cut was as smooth as anything. "That's what the spell is intended to do, yes." Despite her confidence in herself it was still nice to get some confirmation that her skills were as sharp as ever. The abilities she'd used so far were both few and didn't require a lot of precision, unlike Horizon.

However she didn't come here just to pat herself on the back. She was here because there was somebody behind all of this, and she wanted to figure out who it was and what their intentions were. Walking past the minotaur corpses she moved into the next hallway, expecting the rest to follow her even as she kept her eyes on what lay ahead. This passage was as wrecked as what came before, but hopefully at least now they would begin to slowly move away from most of the carnage. Although that would also mean that the traps would once again be functional... the minotaurs might be disgusting creatures but at least they'd done a good job sabotaging the traps in the passage the dragoness and her companions had just passed through by just causing too much structural damage. They might actually have to be more on their guard than before now.

Meanwhile her companions apparently didn't agree with that assessment as the two summoned girls began to bicker again. Akeya really didn't care about their relationship problems but it was annoying to have to listen to them, especially since they seemed to be trying to be as noisy and petty as possible. She knew that people who couldn't stand each other could behave like absolute pieces of trash in each other's presence but that didn't mean she appreciated having to put up with it. When Amelia began to complain the dragoness couldn't help but approve.

She'd almost go so far to suggest to Luna that an easy way to dismiss a summoned entity was to inflict lethal damage to it, but she imagined that would be taken the wrong way entirely. Also she wasn't sure if that method was universally viable across all forms of summoning magic: celestial spirits just disappeared if they received too much damage, but maybe Luna's friends wouldn't be so lucky if the dragoness just cut them in half. Better to not put that to the test if she didn't want to make a lifelong enemy of the pink-haired fairy.

Luckily Amelia was willing to give it a shot to repair the relationship between the two nature spirits. Akeya came to a halt and turned around to watch as the gynoid first slapped both of the women and then began to lecture them on their behaviour. Folding her arms she remained silent throughout the entire thing, although she did find it rather strange that the two archers would immediately resolve their differences the moment an outside force cleared the air for them. Were they just such spiteful people that they needed to have something or somebody to oppose, so they needed to have a shared enemy before they could agree to work together?

"I highly doubt that's going to last." Was her only real comment as the two spirits disappeared. They might be all lovey dovey now but given their attitudes she was pretty sure that they'd soon forget this moment and return to what they were like before. Petty people didn't just stop being petty that easily.

And then came the argument between Amelia and Luna. The dragoness could only shrug when she was asked whether she'd ever had to deal with less reliable summoning magic. Honestly she hadn't, but it was clear that Luna didn't want her to get involved so she kept her mouth closed as she was honestly curious to see how this would develop. Amelia and Luna might not always be on the same wavelength, but at least they appeared to get along unlike those two spirits from before. Yet their argument was only getting worse and worse, as it was clear that the gynoid was completely and utterly fed up with the fairy's family and friends.

The end result was rather curious, as apparently Amelia was actually pissed off enough to walk away. Akeya raised her eyebrows at that, but still didn't actually say anything as she let the drama before her play itself out. It wasn't really her business, and from what she could tell she and Luna could easily complete the task before them without the gynoid's help. Although it looked like the fairy wasn't in a good state now... The dragoness studied the pink-haired life mage for a moment before continuing to walk once it looked like Luna wasn't about to collapse on the spot.

When Luna tried to apologize Akeya raised one clawed hand. "Don't bother." She was not emotionally invested enough to really be disturbed by the scene that played out before her. It really was mostly just annoying to have to watch. "I'm not your therapist, but I do have two things to say if you want to hear my opinion." There were honestly only two things that stood out to her, after all of that. "The first is that you appear to carry your refusal to abandon anyone like a badge, when it is that trait which just caused your companion to walk away. And combining that with your statement that you consider direct confrontation a last resort..." She looked at Luna over her shoulder, her emerald eyes sharp. "Many pacifists make the same mistake. Many creatures end up failing precisely because they try too hard to find a perfect solution, because they're unwilling to take decisive action when it feels too callous or ruthless."

It was a traditional story, replayed many times throughout history. A king wants to be beloved by the people so he refuses to make harsh rulings until the kingdom collapses around him. A man doesn't want to hurt anybody so he tries to appease everyone until he collapses from the stress and everyone has left him. A woman doesn't want to abandon her friend until that friend's habits cause ruin for the woman and she's left with nothing.

WC: 1,090
PWC: 7,300/11,000
TWC: 15,985/22,000

"A therapist? Like I'd be able to afford one qualified enough to handle my situation. Complex family drama coupled with unguided racial conversion, and having a problem with adopting strays to a point where saying I have a caretaker complex isn't unreasonable. I know all my faults and weaknesses." Luna said trying to keep a light hearted approach but that soon quickly faded as she had to face the reality of the situation. She couldn't bring herself to disagree with the points made by the dragoness who remained neutral throughout the whole ordeal. "In all fairness, her asking me to walk away from my spirits is like asking a dragon to cut off it's wings; sure still remarkably powerful and can survive, but left missing a critical piece that cannot be forgotten. It's hard to explain, but the relationship for Nature Fairy and their spirits are sorta, entwined at the soul and just beyond."

Luna thought long and hard about the second part. She remembered reading stories and tales of battles that waged on, causing massive suffering. Luna herself never saw evasion of conflict as a cowardice act, often believing that sometimes it's stronger to resist fighting. "I can't disagree much on the second part, I just prefer to think that knowledge and wisdom would be a waste if it wasn't used, and as for Amelia claiming I hold back too much, maybe that's cause I prefer to think of the old saying, 'An eye for an eye', no sense in creating senseless violence. Although I can't really call myself a pacifist these days..." Her thoughts drifted back towards a certain day in Magnolia, when she found a illegal fairy harvesting group. The echoes of rage she felt that day still torment her when she plays the events in her mind. "I raided and nearly killed a bunch of Fairy Hunters a while ago. I had their leader dead to rights with a blade to his neck. He killed dozens of my kin for what, aphrodisiacs and soaps? A bit of wealth? Some sick joy out of watching suffering of defenseless creatures? Honestly if I wasn't stopped by a Rune Knight I can't say what I would have done for certain in the heat of the moment." Remembering the scene was scary for her, not because she was scared of the man, but she was scared of herself. While she had been in many different fights in her life, none were like that one. The instinct to kill was not always familiar to Luna, to her it was usually a voice that she believed required to be tempered, and even in her studies of her own abilities she always managed to restrain herself. Her restraint was her own true strength at many times as it allowed her to prevent a lot of bloodshed, but when that restraint failed, when her hold over her own senses were hanging on by a thread, she did not know how she'd be able to cope with the fallout.

"The whole matter broke the notion of justice for me, I can't say sparing his life to let him face the courts wasn't wrong, but some part of me still doesn't think taking his life then and there would be wrong. I don't suppose something like justice is something you concern yourself with, as you seem to be unchained by any law except for the laws of reality and your own will." Luna said, no longer hiding her envy. The dragoness seemed to be unbound by the types of burden that seemed to burrow into Luna's every fiber. "Only freedom I have unrestricted these days is knowledge and breathing. There always seems to be another responsibility as soon as I manage one."

Luna chuckled as she realized the irony of her own situation, how falling from one of the seemingly largest in her life lead to worse. "Funny, thought I'd have less responsibility after falling from being Master of Aurora, somehow ended up with more, now even more since now I gotta handle things that Amelia agreed to split evenly on, yeah I feel like I'm the butt of some joke."

Luna looked around at the condition of stone walls of the labyrinth. The size of the seemingly underground structure seemed to perplex the Nature Fairy.  She closed her eyes as she opened her seventh sense to the life around her. While faint in the distance, she was able to tell there was life above, far above the fairy and dragoness. This only seemed to solve one problem but lead to more confusion. "I can still sense the grass and other forms of subterranean life above so this isn't a pocket world. Meaning we've been moving in real space. I'd say we've moved what, a few blocks by now? This labyrinth is immense."

Luna considered the idea of creating a map of the labyrinth, but it seemed too immense to chart. "Considering this was intended for minotaurs, not exactly a creature you want to risk finding the exit and into the public, it has to be large and intertwining to make the entrance hard to find for someone of sub par intelligence relating to spacial orientation and memory, but I doubt this is too much larger than the city as even magical construction has a limit. Unless someone can occupy all the options it'll take a while to map. Wait a minute-" Luna recalled who she was working with at the moment. She recalled the twilight dragoness's ability demonstrated earlier. While she knew that elemental embodiment was a unusual magic, she knew very little about the senses one experiences in such a form. From her knowledge of Amelia's Lightning Body, Amelia is able to see her target but anything else is hazy, and every other sense is null. But from what she saw of Akeya's abilities, there seemed to be some greater form of awareness but she was not totally certain.  "Akeya, about your shadow form, is your, um, well not even sure if consciousness or awareness is the right term to describe it, but is it fixated in a certain point that moves around the darkness or are you able to take in any for stimuli or information of the contents of your darkness?" Luna asked as she was wondering about the extent of Akeya's power in regards to embodying darkness. She wondered if it was the latter, would Akeya's abilities be useful in locating and analyzing a terrain. "If the latter, couldn't we just use some form of basic cartography to determine the location of the goal? Perhaps find a shortcut or path of least resistance?"

Luna had a feeling it wasn't going to be so simple, but she understood little about shadow magic's advanced abilities, or rather much of the other elements. Nature, plants, and life based magics aren't known for having such an embodiment ability as it's reserved for simpler elements, and even if Luna learned the technique turning into a plant would seem to be more of a hindrance. 

WC 1179
PWC 9864/11,000
TWC 17,164/22,000

"Knowing is the first step at least." Akeya didn't think she'd have to say much more on that front, as she was confident that Luna knew what her statement insinuated. Knowing your weaknesses definitely helped, but it was only the first step to dealing with or resolving them. The question of course was whether the fairy truly wished for her more problematic traits to be gone... "A habit of taking in strays usually comes with a desire to be relied upon, which in turn often comes from a desire to feel needed and validated." It could be tricky to get rid of an issue which was born from your desire to be wanted in some form or another, since losing the issue could quickly feel like losing that thing which justified your existence.

Although the dragoness probably shouldn't point out that she could regrow her wings. She understood what Luna was trying to say either way. "If it's impossible for you to cut your connection with them and Amelia is aware of that either she wishes for you to be more responsive to her frustrations or she just can't stand having to listen to their nonense any longer."

What Akeya was more interested in was how Luna would respond to her comments about conflict avoidance and pacifism. So far as the dragoness was concerned a lot of problems actually got exacerbated by people trying too hard to avoid using the harsher methods, hoping against reasons that if they just tried hard enough they'd find a way to get a perfect ending. Stories were to blame for that at least partly, as in many stories which focused about overcoming some trial or challenge eventually a solution would be found which required minimal sacrifice and which was satisfactory for all the important characters. Akeya was fond of stories about adventures and overcoming challenges but it seemed not everyone could properly distinguish between reality and fantasy.

Although of course the only reason those stories existed was because people wanted to believe that there was a clean solution to any situation. The stories didn't cause the problem, they were born from and then exaggerated an already existing problem.

When Luna argued that she preferred knowledge and wisdom over violence Akeya narrowed her eyes, then sighed. That was also an argument that pacifists often used, although it seemed that the fairy didn't consider herself a pacifist no longer given her profession as an adventurer and some incident she'd come across in her past. Some band of thugs who hunted fairies for their supposed special powers, some of which were very much real and some... weren't. Although it also depended on the fairy.

"Knowledge and wisdom aren't automatically opposed to violence and ruthlessness. In fact arguably it's often cold logic which calls for harsh but necessary action while emotion causes people to stay their hand and delay." She wasn't entirely sure where the idea came from that wisdom was tied to not causing harm to others. Maybe it was a vital piece of wisdom for humans, who couldn't survive on their own? That did make sense, although that didn't mean it was a universal truth... "You're right that I don't feel beholden to an artificial system created by humans to maintain a semblance of peace and stability in their society. That said if a person has shown themselves both willing and capable of hunting your kind eliminating them is a smart move, since they're a threat to your kind and by extension yourself. And your family of course." Only the most pacifistic of people tried to argue against the virtues of self-defence after all, although the idea of killing those who might harm you was a bit of a harder sell.

However they weren't here to constantly debate morality, ethics and justice, they were here to figure out what was going on with this place. Now that they were leaving the area which the minotaurs had messed up the hallways were in a better condition. As Luna notified her that she could still feel the world above ground the dragoness nodded, confirming her suspicion that they were still in some form in the Physical Plane. This maze was definitely vast, and the only reason it hadn't been discovered before now must have been because it was well hidden aside from that one entrance, and that one entrance had apparently gained the reputation that those who entered through there died, which discouraged anyone from exploring the place. It was a very good way to hide if you didn't mind the eventual and almost inevitable intrusion of very powerful creatures.

"It could still be that while we haven't moved into a pocket dimension space is warped in this maze. Stranger things have been accomplished with magic. What is certain is that they've put up barriers that make exploration beyond the manual method difficult." She frowned as Luceam inquired whether she could use her elemental form to explore the labyrinth at a quicker pace. "I could try again, but it might trigger traps meant to punish anyone who tries to bypass the challenges the easy way. But I suppose I could try a safer variant." Extending one clawed hand in front of her nothing happened for a moment before light burst from it, shooting forward into the passage ahead and quickly disappearing out of sight. Where it encountered crossroads and alternate paths it split up, the dragoness focusing as she perceived the paths the light took. Given that it was light the exploration resolved itself within less than a second, after which the dragoness looked at Luna. "I think I may have found a quick path to the centre of it all. Follow me."

Akeya didn't need to put her ego into her dark or her light to be able to sense through it, so letting the light do the exploring for her was a safe alternative even if it wasn't quite as thorough as turning her own being into light or dark. She hadn't tried this method before since she'd been worried for traps, but after walking this labyrinth for a while and finding nothing which was designed to halt this kind of thing she figured it was worth the risk.

WC: 1,043
PWC: 8,343/11,000
TWC 18,207/22,000

Luna listened to Akeya as she responded with cold cynicism to her story. She wasn't expecting much more from the dragoness as she understood the points Akeya was explaining regarding her notion of justice. Luna couldn't really admit that she thought that Akeya was in any form wrong, but she was hesitant to admit Akeya was right, especially when she outright mentioned the that the hunter was a threat to Luna's family. She remembered that she walked in as her sister was being prepared to be next, but she was too caught in the moment to panic or fully think things through, only clear thing she remembered was her breathing as she tried to escape each moment by rushing to the next.

When Akeya responded to her query regarding methods to hasten the search throughout the labyrinth, Luna should have seen it coming when the dragoness mentioned a safer variant but she still watched as Akeya chose to use the other end of her repository. After the burst of light Luna quickly shut her eyes, groaning slightly as she was slightly dazed. She rubbed her closed eyes as her fingers started to glow a soft pink light. She used her Nature's Mercy spell to maintain her calmness and quickly readjust her eyes.

"Honestly the traps so far have got me thinking, I might be out of line or a bit exaggerating, everything has been leaning towards testing how one might handle something larger and dangerous in different aspects. A sudden boulder can be a great example of alertness and how one can overcome a strong obstacle. Crazed Wolves in a tight space can represent reaction time and reactions to the killer instincts. Minotaurs however are a great threat, representing any of the previous but I am not quite sure if it's just cause they are a good example for all qualities seen."

She tried to find a good reason to justify minotaurs under the same logic but she was unable to find any satisfying meaning other then they were a good example for a hybrid or a step up from wolves. As the two got closer to the center, Luna started to sense something in the distance, something akin to a flickering light. At first Luna thought she was sensing some form of magical energy, but once she got better focus it was life force. A particularly old one at that and seemed almost human.

As the two walked through the labrynth, the life force seemed to only get stronger as they got closer to the center. After passing through a curved corridor, the two walked into a large circular room at least ten feet tall.

There seemed to be three entrances to the room, the doorway the two walked in through, a door on either side, and a fireplace opposite to the entrance. Between all four points were curved bookshelves. The center of the room and area near the fireplace were on a lower level then the edge of the room. In the lower area closer to the fireplace were two large red chairs and a table by the edge of the room, a table with a stack of books and one next to the stack, as well as a eighth full with whiskey on a coaster. In the center of the room was a cauldron made of iron with dragonic ornamental design, filled with a clear liquid.

There was a man sitting in one of the chairs, his breathing could be heard under the crackling of the flames. He had short grey hair, a patchy beard, hazy brown eyes, a thin build with a height of nearly six feet. He seemed to be dressed in navy blue robes. As the two walked in, the man reached for his glass and took a sip, finishing the glass before putting it down. "So, you've arrived. Longer than I expected, though LuShirain, you should have never played with someone else's toy."

He said as he stood up, Luna was almost startled by the stranger calling her by her Vishda formal name. "How do you know me by that name? No one even used my actual first name all day let alone hint towards that one." She asked defensively, one of her hands reaching for one of Zygmunt's blades on her back. The old man chuckled as he walked closer, his hands skimming over the cauldron. "Very little is out of view for a scrying master, I knew you were present the moment you, well just you stepped in town." His gaze looked at Akeya but he seemed slightly eager to dismiss her presence. "However it is hard to find just one shadow in the night."

A wave of color spiraled in the liquid as the man stared, a wave of confusion seemed to scowl his face as the colors faded. "Odd, I half expected you to fall apart at the minotaur room, I guess you conquered your fear of bulls already." Luna raised an eyebrow as she looked at Akeya, thinking the man's statement was directed at the other. "A cynic dragon scared of bulls? Is that true Akeya?" The man raised an eyebrow before looking at Luna with an exhausted stare before walking over towards the pink haired woman before grabbing her right shoulder. Luna responded by smacking his arm causing the grip to come undone before pushing him back. "What in Shirain's name are you doing?"

The man grumbled for a moment before returning back to the cauldron, this time sticking his hand in the liquid causing it to turn a solid grey before jet black, returning to clear shortly after. "So this time the bull from hell didn't amputate your shoulder as a child, I swear that fool needs to stop meddling in your timeline before he makes a version of you that isn't merciful." His hand came back from the liquid completely dry. "First two times were interesting, now it's just frustrating to deal with you, temporal warfare isn't right especially with him going after the soft points, the fixed points are still there and he can't afford to touch them, and therefore unable to win. Although releasing a bull from hell to maim a child is cruel even if it could make him the victor, and a god."

Luna raised an eyebrow at the man, trying to understand his dialogue. "What are you saying? Timeline? Warfare? Fixed or soft points? Are you saying I'm at war with time? You're making no sense." Luna said, she was half convinced that this man could have been a great sorceror at one point but she was more convinced that the man has lost his mind. She stepped closer towards Akeya and whispered softly so only the dragoness could glearly hear. "I don't think he's all there in the head, if time was altered, wouldn't he be unaware to any changes?"

The man grunted before reaching his hand out towards the table, and a rather old book with a hard leather case flew out into his hand. "Anyways, back to what's important now that you two have passed this test. I think you are ready to start this daunting task." Luna was dumbfounded as the man skipped over the earlier ranting and started moving onto a new subject like nothing ever happened. "There are ten powerful dragons, scattered among different places and different elements. Since neither of you were even bothered by the tests, I am more then certain that you two can handle the challenges ahead."

He chuckled as he examined the book before tossing it over towards the Nature Fairy, Luna barely caught it. "But I don't imagine this being impossible for a couple of slayers." He said nonchalantly, Luna scoffed in shock as the main was blunt. "Only dragon slayer right here." Luna said gesturing to Akeya, using something specific to avoid feeling like lying and covering. The old man chuckled. "True, but I'd still be worried about a Goddess Slayer facing a dragon. I'd still bet on the slayer." Luna's grip started to tremble a bit as she decided to try a desperate gamble. "Can we stop referencing information about me obtained by a glorified stalker?" The old man shrugged. "No other way I could learn about her, the dragon escapes my scrying. Unless she's near someone else, all I see is darkness when I try. But yeah, where was I?"

Luna skiddishly responded quickly. "You were talking about the dragons." She said trying to put him back on track. The man snapped his fingers and the glass on the table disappeared and reappeared but filled quarter way with whiskey again. "Aye, there are ten dragons, the book will guide you to each one, each of a different element so you're good for at least three of them. Once you knock em out, slay them, or whatever, take one of their scales and move on, and if you do, a great fortune will await you at the end. Any questions?"


WC 1505
PWC 11369
TWC 19712

Akeya frowned as Luna suggested that the traps they'd encountered so far had been intended as tests of some sort. There was a certain logic behind it... but all in all the main thing was that the traps were, well, a bit underwhelming. "You do have a point... These traps didn't appear to be designed to keep someone out, or if they were they were horribly designed. Boulders, wolves, minotaurs... they're all threats but they're more like risky environmental hazards. A proper security system would use methods designed to track you and incapacitate you, not throw random dangerous things at you and hope something sticks." Her frown deepened as she considered this, but then eventually shrugged. "The only way to find out would be to get to the centre of this labyrinth. There should be some clues there."

She noted that Luna had been unprepared for the flash of light, but the fairy recovered quickly enough. And the light hadn't been meant to be harmful anyway, so even without magic the worst Luna could have experienced was a temporary blinding, some spots in her vision and a mild headache. Nothing she couldn't shake off. "I'll be glad when we're done with this."

Now that she had an idea of which way to go the rest of the labyrinth was smooth sailing. So far the dangers hadn't really been dangerous but they had been annoying, joined by the fact that she had to find her way blindly. Now they were making good progress, until finally the two of them arrived at the centre of it all to find a strangely luxuriously designed room. It even had a fireplace, some comfortable chairs and a lot of books. It looked a bit like a mixture between a wizard's tower and an aristocrat's lounge. The dragoness could acknowledge that there was some style in it, although the bigger question was why such a place was here.

The man inhabiting the room was... well, Akeya had been expecting someone a bit shorter, honestly. This person almost looked gaunt. She wasn't entirely sure why, but if she'd been asked the question of who would be in the middle of a dungeon like this she would have thought of someone with a bit of weight to them, someone who could enjoy the benefits of being holed up in one place and not having to move too much.

She folded her arms as the man addressed the two of them, although it quickly became clear that he had significantly more interest in Luna. Akeya raised an eyebrow at the fairy when she responded so strongly to the name, filing that away as 'interesting details'. Apparently Luna had a different name that had some importance to her, but which she'd rather not use too freely. Maybe it had to do with her nature as a fairy? There were stories that if you knew the true name of a fae you had power over them, but the pink-haired nature mage didn't look like she was concerned about something like that. If anything she just looked annoyed and suspicious.

The dragoness's eyebrows both lowered at the mention of a scrying master, although when he mentioned that he had trouble tracking her she smirked triumphantly instead. As an assassin she didn't want anyone to be able to easily track her. Given how the man was largely ignoring her it looked like he'd rather not deal with her and her obscurity.

"Why would I be afraid of bulls?" Akeya looked openly confused at that, although it quickly became clear that the comment was aimed towards Luna... who was just as confused as the twilight mage. When the man approached Akeya unfolded her arms and lifted one clawed hand lightly, ready to make the man regret it if he tried anything. However it looked like he merely wanted to inspect Luna for something... and then mentioned timelines. Akeya's eyes widened before she groaned. Oh no. No no no no no...

"Just slice my belly open and pull out my innards. I stepped into a temporal conflict." The rather unusual bout of swearing was followed by the dragoness placing her clawed hand against her face and slowly dragging it down. She was actually annoyed now, significantly more so than all that arguing Luna's companions did. That was just mildly irritating and easily ignored as long as she wasn't involved: temporal distortions were always a headache. Always.

She looked at Luna with a chagrined expression, the tip of her tail slamming against the stone floor. "He's saying that there's an entity out there who's been meddling with time to try and get a specific result, and apparently you're an important figure. As for why he would know this... Crossing from one timeline to another is nigh impossible, as doing so usually just creates an entirely new timeline, but it's possible to obtain information from another timeline. Or if someone is rewinding time to get a different result from the original timeline information from the past version can be preserved." Her expression darkened. "It would be a fascinating topic and one of the best methods for achieving omniscience if it didn't give rise to some of the worst problems in existence and didn't have a habit of rendering you stark raving mad. And entities which can handle all of that tend to be incomprehensible." She glanced towards the strange man. "Preserving data from a timeline which has been turned back to a previous point is about the extent of what you can do before it starts becoming too problematic, as it essentially just means you have knowledge of a potential future."

As the topic shifted to hunting dragons Akeya calmed down a little, although being a dragon herself she wasn't necessarily that eager to have a discussion over what can and can't kill a dragon. Even so when the man said that he'd bet on a god slayer in a fight between a god slayer and a dragon she snorted, briefly amused by the suggestion. Her mood was further improved by the man once more admitting that even with all his powers as a scryer he had a hard time getting a bead on her. "That's intentional, and I'm glad to hear it's working." Of course she didn't know a lot about this man yet, but he did appear to be honest.

She quickly replied when the man asked if there were any more questions. "I believe the appropriate question here would be to ask why. Leaving aside the poorly designed labyrinth, I have a hard time believing you'd send us to retrieve dragon scales just because." She tapped one of her own scales. "Especially if you go so far as to make us chase down ten dragons of different elements. That reeks of an ulterior motive." She highly doubted the man would actually tell her what she wanted to know, but she at least wanted to see what he'd say to deflect the question.

WC: 1,168
PWC: 9,511/10,000
TWC: 20,880/20,000 (Completed)

Luna could tell from the Dragoness's reaction to the mention of temporal issues that it was well out of her expertise and was definitely something she did not want to engage herself in. Luna listened to the explanation of the twilight mage on how someone could obtain information regarding alterations to a timeline. While Luna believed Akeya, she couldn't put stock in any one theory at this point. However the issue that she had taken from the matter is that Luna is of such importance or threat that someone felt the only method to ensure victory was to meddle with time itself. 


"The most significant part of my name is I was once a master of a Legal guild, and that's probably just a dusty old record in the Magic Council's records by now." Luna muttered to herself.

However she did note Akeya's tolerance of the man seemingly fading even after the tension in her body language faded slightly.  While Luna couldn't see a reason initially for questioning the motive of the client, she soon had a suspicion as she recalled, the twilight dragoness was a powerful dragon of both light and darkness, yet the man seemed to be disinterested in Akeya's own scales. Luna was skimming through the book as the man thought about Akeya's question and answered it a moment later.

"Aye, it's nothin' serious, just these lizards owe me from a poker game and haven't paid up." He said with a straight face and calm tone. Luna scoffed as she closed the book, seemingly slightly insulted. "You tell a lie after you hand someone the proof otherwise, half the dragons in this book never leave their territory and some are mostly incorporeal, one of these advocates for a group that abstains from worldly pleasures!" She held the book up.

The elderly man sighed as he listened to the confrontational rant of the fairy, he drank his glass and snapped his fingers refilling, drinking partway through before putting his glass down. "Alright alright, I get it, no wonder you can't find a man." He rubbed his temples for a moment. "Truth is, I'm an avid collector of dragon scales." Luna looked at the man with a stare of disbelief as his behavior of being dismissive towards Akeya seemed to counter that idea. "I still doubt that. Otherwise why not ask Akeya? She's a Twilight and sometimes a cosmic dragoness, and can't say for certain but she is at least up there with all these dragons."  

The man groaned as it was clear he was annoyed at this point. "Already bought one from another scale collector. Anything else?" Luna tried to study the man, but was struggling to find a tell. She had a gut feeling that he was lying, but at this point she had a feeling the man prepared dialogue for questions at this point. "Well, unless you can account for all your scales including any shed, I wouldn't say that story is impossible, but I doubt he'd show us if we asked, and even if he does, doesn't prove he's a collector, scales are easy to replicate or fabricate. At this point we're more likely to get information from the dragons about him then himself."  Luna whispered under her breath towards Akeya.

The man grumbled as he could tell the two were trying to figure him out. He reached into his pocket and tossed out two envelopes to each of the mages. "Here's reward for coming this far. You got the information, you can walk if you want, but I think you'll want to see this to the end. Besides Lunaris, coming here cost you a good relationship you had going, something that supported you after you were cast out and humiliated, mocked for your religion. You would rather it be for something so you'll rationalize seeing this through to the end to make up for the cost."

Luna bit her lip as she heard the man try to predict her thinking, but was more annoyed the the prospect that what he said probably would be true. "As for you Miss Akeya, I genuinely believe you'll take this on out of curiosity." He said before snapping his fingers, the left door opened up to reveal a staircase leading up. "This will take you back to the house up in Talonia, in dining room." He leaned back on the chair with a smirk. "Your decision ladies."

Luna grimaced for a moment, the emotional manipulation the man attempted aside, she knew she was going to take on this job regardless. "I'm in."

"I see." Was the only answer Akeya had to give as Luna explained that the name the strange man had used to address her didn't actually have any deep meaning behind it. She wasn't going to question the fairy's word, but she wondered why Luna would care so much if the name had no special meaning to it. Sure, it was a bit strange to have someone call you by a name that most people didn't know, but if it was just another name with no significance behind it there was no real danger behind it other than revealing that the person in question was good at doing their research.

That said given that she hadn't expected the man to give her a reasonable answer to her question she wasn't surprised when he pulled out a reply which was so obviously fake that she was somewhat surprised that he managed to say it with a straight face. The dragoness just raised an eyebrow at him as he described dragons as lizards, wondering if maybe she should cut off one of his limbs and see if that would help any. Fortunately Luna stepped up and continued the conversation before she could make up her mind, because she was pretty sure that actually going through with it would have soured the conversation somewhat.

She listened with some very visible disinterest as the man kept thinking of new reasons why he'd need dragon scales while Luna tried to get him to tell the truth. She was more interested in the man's actual motives, and they weren't going to get those from his mouth. "Don't bother, he's not going to tell us." She stated bluntly while her thoughts inside her head raced.

When Luna commented that scales were easy to fabricate the twilight dragon stared at her with raised eyebrows. "Mine aren't, and most dragons have something unique about their scales as well." There was a reason why there were legends of mythical weapons being made from the remains of dragons. The magical creatures tended to have supernatural properties in their body, magic and soul. If replicating it was that easy everyone would be walking around with immensely powerful equipment.

"But it's true that the other dragons might be able to provide us with useful information." The man was clearly lying through his teeth (and admittedly doing a remarkable job keeping a straight face doing it). He also didn't care that they knew he was lying. What was his actual purpose? Akeya narrowed her eyes as she studied the tall and gangly male. She didn't think he was lying about wanting them to collect the scales, or at least for them to go and fight the dragons. But the purpose behind it... There was one she could think of.

It was intriguing to see how the man even managed to use a recent development such as Amelia walking away to get Luna to do what he wanted her to do. He clearly wasn't putting on airs when he described himself as a scrying master, and beyond that he also had a decent grasp on psychology. People didn't like feeling like their decisions were wrong, so they often would rationalize their actions even if they were aware of this bias. And as evidence of that Luna appeared willing to accept the challenge despite having every reason to refuse just to spite this stranger.

"You're quite the clever man." Akeya observed even as she took the offered envelope and walked towards the new doorway. "You know a lot more than you're letting on, and you've managed to convince the both of us to do what you want." Reaching the doorway she'd come to a halt for a moment, glancing at the man over her shoulder. "Just don't get too confident that everything will work out the way you want it." With that she left the room, although she did walk slowly so Luna would have plenty of opportunity to catch up with her.

From the man's words she could infer that there were certain events surrounding Luna which were effectively set in stone. Even time travel couldn't undo them. Which meant that she'd have to figure out which events were already decided upon and which ones were still malleable... the twilight dragon narrowed her eyes. It didn't really change anything: fate was a fickle thing. The steps you took to avoid your destiny would lead you straight into destiny's hands. if you truly wanted to control your own fate you just had to do whatever made sense to you at any one time.

"I think he's doing this to test you." She'd say once Luna had caught up. "He has a strong interest in you but doesn't actually care about the task he's given us. He just wants to see how you'll handle it." It wasn't the only possibility, but it was a pretty strong one. Throughout their meeting the man had practically been obsessed with Luna and did his best to ignore Akeya. And he appeared to be in conflict with someone else who wanted Luna to fail...

Luna was reading the book following Akeya up the stairs from a distance, cautious to not trip or bump into the dragoness's tail, making sure to remain behind them. The book seemed to be the only comforting thing about this whole scenario for Luna, reading was always something that could ease her anxiety in some of the trying moments of her life, and sometimes it made more sense of the chaotic or allowed her to get lost in a different world through her imagination.  She studied the pages of the dragons, listening to their tales and legends. However the cruel thing with all fantasies, is that there's always something that snaps someone out and back to reality, whether that be time or life around the reader, and that was no different then when Akeya spoke to Luna. 


Luna listened as the dragoness spoke about her opinions of the man and she seemed to concur. "Honestly it seemed like he was more annoyed about something, but if you could see time being altered wouldn't you be annoyed too? Temporal affairs aren't really my scene so I can only surmise someone is trying to achieve a specific result but when the man complained about fixed points, I'm guessing that refers to preset events to cause an outcome, but the outcome isn't what this unknown entity he referred to wants but still requires the preset events to get what he wants."

Luna tried to wrap her head around the point but was starting to get frustrated with sorting out temporal logic. "Like, say I was the only one that could open a door to a treasure, but the unknown entity was unable to get to what's on the other side before me. He can't risk altering the door being opened otherwise he risks losing the treasure. Although there is the possiblity that he repeatedly failed, the man did say this wasn't the first change, perhaps this entity is stuck in an infinite loop as well, I do whatever it does that starts the fight between us, and he fails and goes back in time to alter some event that won't harm the preset events that he's aware of so he can tip things into his favor, ultimately fail, and restart the whole process-" Luna groaned rubbing her temples with her right hand. "Only now it seems there are deviations. As it was clearly seen some things can escape predictions, such as now I know there is someone messing with my timeline, question is did my previous, well alternate selves also know? Is this conversation part of a deviation since you seem to escape precognition? This is way too much to process."

Luna started to feel her stomach turn, she took a deep breath and mentally grounded herself in what she knew, and what she knew was nothing. "I don't mess with time, so I am just going to pretend not to know anything until I meet this temporal deviant." She returned her gaze back to the book in her hands. "Anyways, I guess we should focus on what is present, and there are no time dragons in this book. There are ten dragons, a dragon of fire, water, earth, wind, poison, metal, lightning, ice, shadow, and light. He never specified an order..."

She flipped through the pages loosely looking at every location. "Each is in Sin, Cloud Sea, Forgotten Deserts, Minstrel, Lavanitir Port, Mount Helicon, Lightning Island, Silent Glaciers, the Graveyard Sea, and... the, Holy Castle respectively. I can't imagine we'd be welcome much in the last one." Luna chuckled but she did worry about how a different religion and a assassin would be welcome in the castle. "Since we do have the advantage of slayer magic I don't imagine much trouble against the Light, dark and e-" She bit her lip to cut herself short as she was starting to get ahead of herself, almost saying earth. However she knew she was talking to someone at least thrice as perceptive as herself so in the brief third of a second she had to think of something. "even perhaps lightning and fire, since, light is a byproduct..." She knew she was not fooling anyone but still had to at least try for now. "So question is, which one first?"

Akeya could agree that reading was often a good way to calm down and relax. There were some books which didn't facilitate, whether that was because of their contents or because of the magic cast upon them, but most books would give you the opportunity to slow down, let your thoughts settle and just take in the contents at your own pace. Which was why she didn't immediately interrupt Luna while she was reading.

The dragoness wasn't exactly a sensitive person: she largely was apathetic towards the feelings of others. However she wasn't oblivious to the fact that other people had feelings and concerns of their own and that those were decisive factors in how they behaved. Luna was the one who'd been pushed all this time, so it was smart to give her the time to recollect herself before addressing the matter at hand.

"I believe part of his annoyance was at my presence: people who want to have precise control over the course of events are easily agitated when a variable enters the setting which they didn't anticipate and have little control over." Akeya was the same as the scrying master in that aspect: she had a more hands-on attitude, but she still preferred to have all the relevant intel. Unpredictable and uncontrollable variables were a nuisance.

She cocked her head as Luna continued to ponder about all the temporal nonsense that was sure to turn this entire job into much more of a headache than it had any right to be. Akeya had studied temporal magic, she had some understanding of it, but the problem was that an understanding of time magic didn't improve matters: it just meant you were more aware why you were developing such a headache. The dragoness's intellect was sufficient that she could handle time nonsense, but that didn't mean she liked it. Still, for the moment she didn't feel like she had much choice but to go along with it: she could technically just walk away but she wanted to figure this mystery out.

Besides, she didn't often have an excuse to go around picking a fight with other dragons. That was something which really should concern her more, but after having to deal with everything down in that labyrinth Akeya was okay with causing some trouble by upsetting some of her kin. If they pulled it off properly they'd probably just accept the loss and keep to themselves anyway.

"From what I understand the issue is relatively straightforward. For a scenario where time magic is involved. This scrying master is in conflict with an unknown entity. That entity wants to achieve something, and you appear to be the key to achieving that. They're willing to go back in time and create a new timeline to achieve their goal, constantly changing things to try and get the result they're aiming for.

However there are certain events which are set in stone. Whether that is because there's magic involved to keep them locked or because they're simply inevitable as a result of uncontrollable factors is unknown. Either way the end result is that our mysterious enemy is unable to change events which almost inevitably causes their efforts to fail, so they're trying to change everything else to try and compensate for that.

That you're aware that time magic is involved doesn't have to be a deviation: the awareness that someone is manipulating time doesn't counteract their manipulations. However it is safe to assume that the lanky man back there is trying to put an end to the time travelling." Akeya was scouting ahead as she spoke, sensing the dark and the light. The man appeared to have been honest when he stated that this tunnel would quickly lead them back to the surface. "After all he is the one who is in conflict with the entity trying to change the past, as it were. If he can put an end to the time travelling he'll get his desired result. Of course whether that is beneficial for you depends on whether the normal course of events is positive or not. You might end up siding with the unknown entity depending on all the details we're still ignorant of."

She nodded as Luna decided to just focus on the dragon scale hunting. The fact that the man wanted a scale from dragons who all had a different element pointed towards the idea that there was some value to the scales themselves... It was possible he just wanted them to face a variety of different dragons to see how they handled different elements but the odds were low. Two dragons with the same element could already be vastly different from one another.

"From our current position the Forgotten Deserts are the closest by. I assume that's where the earth dragon resides." She snorted at the thought that the shadow dragon would be in the Graveyard Sea and the light dragon in the Holy Castle. Typical. She also noted Luna's slip of the tongue. "And given that we seemingly have an advantage against earth, we might as well take care of that one first."