A Dragon's Curiosity

Even without a request and trade, Nisha would never allow a person dear to her to suffer from the repercussions of her own making, hence the dragon agreed quickly to take a look at the situation and probed the crimson orb with a stream of her own mana.

One of her favourite aunts asked after all, she had to give it her best.

The new information about spiritual items confused her a tad, since she had never heard about it before. Nonetheless, Nisha accepted it as a solid truth and considered the nature of the red sphere that harmed the goddess.

Upon closer inspection, the crimson parts only made up the vast majority of the orb.

After all, the dragon had a good grasp over her own blood, even when it had changed into another product through the use of alchemy or the equivalent used by the green haired woman.

She leaned closer and only left the width of a hair between the tip of her fingers and the spiritual poison.

Through fine emissions of mana and aura, the elf attempted to communicate with the orb and find some way to separate it from her Aunt Bael.

The response felt strange in her head.

Instead of the usual smooth flow of energy in her own body, the crimson orb appeared to be bloated and lethargic.

Only the core surged with life force, a pulsing centre which fluctuated as it received the dragon’s intent.

It honestly surprised Nisha. The poison acted like a living furnace rather than a vicious poison that attacked the goddess.

She had no basis to credit her impressions on. Merely the response to her own energy incited the vague reflection.

And it might be a trick too, the spiritual being might already be smart enough to deceive her in order to complete its purpose.

Nonetheless, Nisha trusted her own blood. [Spirit Sight] failed to pick up a reading from the sphere, a hint that the realm of the aura and mana that made up the spiritual poison was far beyond her league.

It constantly ate away at the vines, which substituted the green haired beauty’s body, and threatened to hurt her aunt.

The process had twisted the control of the original owner, herself, beyond any measure and turned the active and mysterious power of her bloodline into an insidious purpose.

But the call of its origin moved the crimson orb, and the dragon trusted in her own body and mind.

No matter how twisted it became, the blood always belonged to her and would never hurt her.

“Before I can make an attempt to cure the poison, I have a few questions. Do you mind if I ask?”

The elf refrained from directly touching the blood, yet. It had many impurities mixed inside, the byproducts from the alchemical process.

Furthermore, Bael only asked her to look at it, not to solve it as a last measure towards a urgent emergency.

“Go ahead. I have some free time before Gabriel notices that I’m taking longer than usual to come back from checking on my lovely pets.

And it’s nice to spend some time with my lovely Little One alone too, my other half is always so stiff and formal.

What do you want to ask?”

Bael had astonishing control over the vines and made all but the supporting foundation that held the orb wither away.

The wound looked rather eerie without any blood flowing, a void left in the open.

“You said you used most of your ring finger to prevent the poison from advancing. Based on your words, it isn’t an urgent matter right now either.

What would you do in case I cannot resolve the poison?”

Rather than pure curiosity, Nisha hoped to get a hint how to cure the goddess and stop her from falling back on a more drastic method.

“Well, it isn’t all that bad yet, really. This is a representation of myself created by our [Inner World], just like you currently are.

Since the spiritual nature of the poison has yet to infect the original body of Gabriel and me, it isn’t incurable.

The most realistic way would be to disperse this representation and isolate the orb in the process.

Once it is contained, it can’t latch onto my body again.

In case it follows my dispersing consciousness and reappears when I form another body in the [Inner World] shared by me and my sister, I need to take harsh measures and purge an entire part of my will together with the poison.

It will regenerate, but the pain and process of rebirth will surely alert Gabriel, who will without doubt scold me and give me a punishment for playing around too much.

This might sound trivial to you, but you haven’t seen my sister yet when she gets angry.”

Together with those words, Bael shuddered as if cold shower fell on her head. The elf doubted the angelic Gabriel had it in her to really punish her sister for getting injured, but did not question it.

“If you put it in these terms, it sounds urgent, alright.

I have a hunch, more of a guess, really, it might solve the problem without going through all the trouble.

You cannot interfere in the process, however.

Do you agree?”

Nisha took the hand with the missing fingers in her own and ran her finger along the withered border of the wound.

The casual caress left a tingling on the open surface of Bael’s hand, yet she suppressed scratching the itch.

Somehow the shiver distracted the goddess from asking more pointed details about the method the elf wanted to use and nodded her head in a wooden manner.

As no resistance came from the green haired beauty, the elf proceeded with her method.

It had no solid base, no reason why it should work, or a guarantee it would not harm her instead.

However, the reveal from the goddess also assured her that any damage that might come to her incarnation originated from her [Inner World] was not as catastrophic as she might have thought.

Whether Bael and Gabriel’s ability to regenerate their incarnations originated from the nature of their dual origin or if it was an intrinsic ability anyone enjoyed after they opened their [Inner Space], it did not matter to the dragon.

She had a vague impression from her own blood and no reason not to do her best when her favourite aunt asked her for a favor.

Nisha took a leap of faith based on a good guess and the trust in herself, her blood.

“I’ll start now, then. You have to promise me, do not interfere, or an accident might occur.

After all, I’m no expert on topics like spiritual items and the like.”

She only dared to start after getting a promise from Bael, the goddess might interfere if she went through with her idea.

The crimson sphere had pulsed under her ministrations, desperate and craving for energy.

Its capacity helplessly failed to contain the vast amount of energy that came from the impurities mixed within the other ingredients. The pure dragon lineage worked hard to digest the overflow and it had no alternatives left.

Ultimately, the spiritual nature awakened by the crafting process had no idea how to cope with the excessive energy either and was on the verge of breaking down.

Through the link of being the origin of the poison, Nisha had a pretty good grasp on the details now that the red orb was in front of her.

Of course, that was unless the newly born toxin was vastly more cunning than the dragon and aspired to prey on her too.

Either way, that was a risk Nisha was willing to take and she no longer hesitated.

She used the nail on her thumb to slice open her palm, a stream of blood freely falling on the poison sphere.

Bael spectated with a half expecting and half curious gaze.

She had only had a small hope in the first place, the dragon might not have a way to deal with the poison either, it was just a courtesy visit before taking more serious measures.

Still, the greedy orb had continually consumed her life force in the form of the vines as the goddess controlled the outbreak.

Now, it refused to swallow the blood dropped on it, the beads coated the surface.

It truly showed the spiritual nature bestowed on the poison after going through the crafting process.

And luckily, Nisha did not feel that the crimson sphere greedily reached out for the blood, or attempted to swallow her mind either.

Confident that her assumption was right, the elf smeared her entire palm with blood.

Bael looked forward to the next step.

She was not let down.

The elf surpassed all expectations and left her with a wide open mouth.

Nisha did not just spill her blood on the orb, she grasped it with the palm coated with blood.

“What are you doing? Stop!”

Despite promising not to interfere, the green haired goddess still shouted at the foolish dragon, who touched a spiritual poison several times stronger than her own realm.

Coming here turned from a flight of fancy into an insane venture.

She really wanted to use her power and stop the dragon from carrying out her insane actions, but Bael had promised not to interfere.

All she could do was to anxiously wait and see what happens.

With the rich allure of a new source of energy, the crimson sphere detached from the green haired goddess’ vines and turned into a fluid.

It disappeared into the open cut in her palm, the beating furnace immediately turning into a boiling and searing fountain, pumping that scorching power through her veins.

Bael wanted to rush over and inspect the dragon to see if the poison harmed her, but before she could act, the elf clasped her hands in front of her chest and started to float in the air with her legs crossed under herself.

Since the outwards appearance did not match with signs of a poisoning, the goddess only spread her power and did not interfere, cautious to intervene at any moment if the process turned out bad.

The previous clean cut bubbled with yellow pus, the flesh turning purple, black and blue as the remaining traces from the toxins, venoms and potions split away from the bloated blood.

Her temples ached, while her kidney and stomach endured needle like stings. Burning fire ran through her veins while the limbs fell into an icy hell from the poison.

Still, Nisha remained clear headed and free from worry.

Killing her was not the spiritual entity’s goal, it shed the impurities to merge thoroughly with the dragon.

A hole opened beneath the floating figure, tainted blood eating away at the ground.

Bael locked her brows and frowned persistently. If not for the calm expression on the elf’s face, she would have long called Gabriel to save her adopted niece, healing spells had almost no effect when the green haired twin cast them.

Nisha’s palm finally began to heal when the foreign blood returned to her body, dissipating into all of her flesh and connected into a grand circulation.

The symptoms caused by the poison subsided and force washed her head and cleansed her body, forging both of them repeatedly in the process.

Her cultivation regressed, not because of the damage but rather condensed from the consecutive blows.

At the lower bound of the fourth rank, the mana and aura stopped dropping and a refreshing breath escaped all of her pores.

Four springs poured limitless mental energy out inside her [Inner World] and four opening appeared along the grand circle in her constitution. Fiery and dusky strength surged from all her extremities, giving the impression of boundless power.

The dragon spat out a murky breath, greedily sucking in clear air afterwards after the spiritual being dissipated and finished the merging process.

Comparably to common elementals, it had no true consciousness apart from a weak compulsion to complete itself.

Bael suffered from the attachment, not because it became a poison in the alchemical process, but rather because her energy happened to be incompatible with the orb and the demand increased exponentially.

As it happened, the spiritual being birthed by the venoms fulfilled exactly the opposite role. Nisha obtained a leftover fragment of knowledge when it assimilated with herself.

The excessive poisonous nature of the ingredients gave birth to an elixir, the crimson sphere contained the essence of a perfect beast, the [Dragon Force].