A Dragon's Curiosity

Getting my second 'rona shot two weeks later. If I start speaking russian or binary, then they got me good. Might have a slight delay if the vaccination side effects hit me hard again, had a fever and hard headaches from the first one

At the eastern border, the influence of the Leandar kingdom faded as the number of villages dwindled and the Wilderness reigned over the surroundings of the continental road.

Monsters lurked near the road and got chased away by caravan guards while a train of wagons travelled eastwards.

The caravan had the Terus empire as its destination, although those bound for the desert cities or the southern tribes in the frozen tundra also took advantage of the continental road for as much distance as possible before switching to other roads.

No one knew who built the stone brick road that connected the extremes of the continent, as a west east route as well as a north south route encompassed Ator, but it lasted since the earliest records throughout the different countries without the need to repair it.

The two lines crossed a short distance east of the Terus empire and represented the dream of all merchants as the smooth road allowed easy travel for carriages.

Unbeknownst to the caravan travelling on the continental road, a crimson eagle raced along the same route and passed over their heads.

Generally, the guards would react to monsters or beasts passing in such close proximity to their charge, but neither the guards nor the merchants noticed its existence at all.

The eagle paid the humans below it no mind and thundered past them with flaming wings, its eyes dead set on a distant target.

Right before the invisible raptor entered the borders of Leandar, the fire faded from its wings and it stopped right in the air, hovering on the spot.

Not much in front of it, a smiling projection blocked the street leading to the capital of Leandar, Thurgau.

Lord Niruth, the dragon envoy, appeared with his usual disguise of a robe with a deep cowl drawn over his head and a green dragon tail peaking out.

Dismayed at being stopped, the fire apparition faded away to reveal a woman with short red hair dressed in a military uniform.

Although the lady was not very tall compared to most men, her imposing stature and dignity made her appear taller than she was.

“What right do you have to block my way. Move aside, I have business to attend to.”

Staring at the projection in front of her, the woman imperiously pointed right at his face, ignoring the draconic tail and the fact that he could see her when no one else was able to do so.

Helpless in front of the brusque attitude, Niruth shrugged and remained on the spot, not giving her a chance to advance.

“You are still as impatient as ever, Flame Empress.

I am afraid that no matter how urgent your business is, I cannot let you pass in good conscience.”

When the dragon envoy revealed her identity with a calm demeanor, the woman hovering in the air paused.

As the empress of the Terus empire, she had long since passed the governance duties to the council of elders and only passed directives and orders when their decisions strayed too far from the goals of the empire or put their self interest above the good of the people.

Hence, for a long time she had not appeared in the eye of the public, so even if she were to stroll down the main street of the capital, not a single soul should be capable of recognizing her from her appearance.

Seeing that the other party identified her at a glance, he should be either an old monster that lived during the time where she actively formed and led the Terus empire, or he had intelligence from that era, perhaps from a painting or a description of her physical appearance.

Spies and diplomats commonly studied the prominent members of other nations as a way to prepare for their mission, she wasn’t sure which category the projection in front of her belonged to either way.

“You cannot bar my way for no reason. If you insist on turning me away without a good explanation, we can only fight.”

Niruth smiled wryly under his cowl, though it was an illusion anyway and the empress had no way to see.

He did not call her short tempered for no reason, though he did not really want to fight.

“What would you call a good explanation?

According to the agreement, a second realm expert is not allowed to interfere with affairs between first realm parties.

Since you sent an incarnation over here, of course I have to step in and remind you.”

This was not the true body of the Flame Empress, but rather an incarnation based on a specific item that was nurtured for a long time.

After attaining the ninth rank, a warrior or mage would have to step from the first realm into the second realm to continue their cultivation.

Through secret techniques, second realm cultivators separated a part of their consciousness and energy to imbue the item with them and animate the incarnation.

“Are you really bringing up the agreement? How do you explain your presence then?

Nobody but the dragon clan is allowed to break the rules?

You claim that you stop me because a second realm cultivator is not allowed to interfere with mortal affairs, but I am quite sure you do not live in Leandar either.”

The Flame Empress sneered at the dragon envoy and formed a military shortsword and a diamond shaped shield from mental energy, preparing herself to strike first.

To prevent the land from collapsing when powerhouses that exceeded the limit of the world clashed, they would rarely engage in combat with their true bodies.

Incarnations that they currently used had the advantage of being able to fight on a spiritual level, which protected their surroundings and prevented ordinary first realm beings from interfering or even seeing the fight.

The results of such alterations mainly depended on the strength contained within the incarnation, as not everyone inserted the same amount of consciousness and energy during the creation.

“You can rest assured, the Raezar Dynasty is not interested in acting outside of our borders.

My function as ambassador employed to Leandar is limited to being an observer, the only exception would be when someone like you, a second realm expert, breaks the agreement and threatens the safety of the area under my jurisdiction.

As long as you depend on the first realm forces under you, I promise that I will not intervene in any way.”

Of course there was also a secret objective that Niruth did not acknowledge, but it was highly unlikely that his charge would interact with the Flame Empress or others on the same level in the short term.

As a matter of fact, Niruth would welcome the agents of other nations coming to Leandar with open arms and encourage them to go treasure hunting or adventuring for rare resources everywhere as long as they did not break the peace and start harming the locals, which might force him to intervene personally.

Sadly, it was highly unlikely that his word alone was sufficient to prevent a fight from occurring.

“You sure are taking me for a fool.

On one hand, you claim to have no ulterior motives and that the dragon tribe has no interest in snatching away any treasures you found, but on the other hand you rushed here before anyone else, most likely because you got a clue in advance about something valuable surfacing in Leandar soon.

That’s not convincing at all, once you have secured the prize, you lizards will feign ignorance and run away faster than anyone else.”

As the ruler of the Terus Empire, the Flame Empress had interacted with most large entities on Ator before, whether it was the large sects and family clans or the major countries.

It was only the Raezar Dynasty that blocked all envoys and messengers at their borders and refused them entry, going as far as declining all communication as well.

For a prideful person that managed to build an Empire from nothing, it was an unacceptable slight and the Flame Empress refused to acknowledge them as a nation and used derogatory terms such as tribe or lizards to refer to them.

Lord Niruth sighed in frustration, he really had no other intentions and meant exactly what he said.

Why would the Flame Empress just not believe him no matter what?

Now the entire affair became more troublesome.

“Is there any chance I can convince you otherwise?

I would be willing to swear an oath to uphold my word, there is nothing to gain for me by deceiving you.

If we really end up fighting, there will be no other choice for me than expelling you from this piece of land with the full extent of my abilities.”

“And now you’re still trying to intimidate me into giving up.

My resolve will not change just because you are threatening me with violence.

This is the best course of action for the Terus Empire, hence I will certainly overcome you!”

Raising the military short sword and her shield, getting ready for combat.

Behind her back, a large eagle cloaked in flames materialized, strongly resembling the travelling form of her Incarnation.

With every wave of fire, another layer of power descended on the Incarnation.

Niruth knew that the eagle was the guardian beast of the Terus Empire, the [Volcanis Eagle King], which might even require him to be serious in a fight if he was face to face with it.

Fortunately, the Terus Empire only revered the ancestor of the bloodline, their current guardian beast happened to be a [Great Volcanis Eagle], a second realm descendant.

Since the Flame Empress already went into combat mode and readied herself to attack, Niruth groaned and reciprocated the action by summoning his own projection to enhance his Incarnation.

In the sky behind him, a slender dragon silhouette appeared, although it was impossible to make out any details due to a lingering mist around it.

Nevertheless, the general outline revealed an emerald body covered in scales, twisting and turning in the air.

Despite lacking wings, the elongated frame hovered in the air and had a pair of claws beneath it at the front, the middle and the back portion.

Most features aside from the major details and curved horns on top of the dragons head were impossible to make out.

There was one major difference between the eagle and the dragon projection though.

The Flame Empress relied on the inheritance of a beast to conjure her Incarnation and channeled that image as a source of spiritual strength.

On the other hand, the image projected by Lord Niruth was his own body and strength before changing his outward appearance with a [Polymorph] spell.

So instead of a visible phenomenon where the dragon drew upon an outside source of strength, the Incarnation simply unsealed the original strength of Lord Niruth.

“Since you insist on breaking through by force, let’s compare notes then.

Show me how much you have grown since you attempted to invade the Dragon Gate.”

Down the continental road, the caravan suddenly shuddered and experienced a moment of existential threat as the two higher realm beings clashed against each other.

Although the guards and the merchants quickly snapped their heads around and surveyed the landscape behind them, they neither found a monster horde or a natural disaster that explained the bout of impending doom.

The caravan leader shouted out loud to get the attention of the entire train of carriages and ordered them to advance at top speed, even if the horses had to rest for a longer time tomorrow to make up for the burden.

He was spooked by the place and wanted to get the caravan out of here.

At the same time as the humans were fleeing the outskirts of the battle, the Flame Empress and Lord Niruth already separated from each other as their fight came to an end.

Standing in the sky with his usual illusion, the dragon looked at the fractured image of the petite ruler, who glared with murderous intent at him.

“Don’t think that this is the end of it. I will double my efforts to locate the treasure and secure it for the human race.

No matter what you do, I will return.”

Her Incarnation had reached its limit. A fight between Incarnations mainly relied on the source material, since it needed to accommodate the energy from the main body within it.

No matter how big a lake was, as long as only a cup was used to contain water, it would lose to a bowl that held more water, even if the barrel it drew from was smaller than the lake.

As both combatants poured out their mana and aura stored in the medium, the Flame Empress Incarnation showed signs of crumbling first.

Her figure crumbled and revealed a roll of paper, the source material she used to execute the secret technique to manufacture the avatar.

It was an imperial edict, most likely penned by the Empress herself, and then stored in her residence for likely upwards of hundreds of turns to attune to her completely.

Now, the Incarnation had run out of energy and collapsed, and so did the medium.

Starting from a small corner, the edict began burning with a bright orange flame and flaked away into tiny ash motes.

Lord Niruth dropped the illusion and returned to his look as a human youth, scratching his head to fight an oncoming headache.

He truly did not mean to impede the Flame Empress, but his orders were clear to uphold the treaty and not allow higher realm beings to run roughshod over the country while his target still resided here.

Not bothering to think too deeply on the follow up to the situation, he inspected his Incarnation.

Similarly to the Flame Empress, the fight placed a heavy burden on his vessel.

Rather than returning it to the main body and spending time and effort to repair it with new materials, he might as well abandon it and make a new one when the need arose.

Igniting the remaining aura and mana, the dragon projection collapsed and Niruth shattered into tiny motes of light, while his core material surfaced.

Compared to an Imperial Edict, the dragon used a fragment of his own scale to create an Incarnation.

And while the current iteration fell to pieces and faded away, tens of other Incarnations revealed themselves along the border, witnessing how one of their own faded.

Right from the start, the Flame Empress was far out of her league, she only managed to exhaust the dragon’s avatar because the quality of the core material was far inferior to the edict.

When the scale fragment completely broke apart and vanished, the Incarnations moved closer and closed the hole in the encirclement.

They guarded the border and waited for the next challenger.