Chương 443: Chapter 438 - Gale's end

A deep tremor reverberated. The final breath of a being older than most civilisations could remember. The breath of something that had endured the slow humiliation of losing itself over a millennium. The breath of a creature that would finally be still — even if that stillness didn't bring strict peace. Normally, Scarlett wasn't in any position to kill an ancient dragon. No one truly was.

They were such massive, primordial existences that slaying one demanded more than arriving with just a legendary sword and an extra serving of courage. Scarlett—beaten and exhausted from pushing the Stillwork of Shattered Glass beyond its limits—had been nowhere near the state required to meaningfully affect a being like this. It might have taken her days to recover enough to wield her magic properly again. A dragon was a creature of certain pride.

Even at its lowest, it would and could never sink so low as to kill itself. But it was a different matter when the dragon recognised you as worthy. When it placed itself at your mercy. When it bared its very essence and left the final act in your hands. Before her, Olgolzkreh's head rested against the stone, molten light fading from his single open eye. Around Scarlett, arrays of glowing sigils were carved into the ground, intricate formations layered atop one another.

Fynn stood beside her, watching the dragon's final moments with a heavy expression. Olgolzkreh had been destined to die today. Whether that was because of Fate's 'design' or simply the inevitable consequence of his long decline hardly mattered at this point. Some would call the ancient dragon's death a tragedy. Others would see it as just deliverance from divinity. Either way, a fragment of history ended here, and the event carried a weight that probably deserved more ceremony than it received.

Scarlett wasn't a woman given to sentiment. Even so, she found herself staying silent as the last of the dragon's breath slipped away. She didn't truly feel sorry for him, but there was a certain grimness in seeing such a being reduced to this husk of what he had once been. Though their last meeting hadn't been truly real, within that Memory, she'd seen what he had been like at his peak, and she felt a quiet measure of gratitude for the aid he had provided.

She was also grateful that he'd agreed to her final request now, even when it favoured them far more than him. Maybe he had simply been curious. Maybe he had seen it as a chance to atone, however slightly. Or maybe it was simply his desire to leave one final imprint upon the world after generations spent in relative isolation. Scarlett turned, her gaze settling on the centre of the layered arrays. At their heart stood a crystal. It was many-faceted and clear as glacial ice, yet so dense it bent the light around it.

Larger than she was, its outer crystalline layers almost seemed to rotate in slow, compelling motion around a nucleus of fierce white-blue radiance. Within that brilliance ran veins of pure power, threaded through something almost organic, pulsing with force. Each beat sent delicate fractures of frost and light branching through the structure. The air tightened with the pressure, then released in a controlled surge that spread rime across the surrounding stone.

It was like a blizzard distilled to its most austere, enduring essence. The heart of an ancient dragon. A prize for which entire nations would wage war. At her estate, the heart of an adolescent ashenwraith dragon powered the Loci. That alone was an asset beyond what most gold could reliably secure. But compared to what stood before her now, that heart was like a pebble by the side of the road.

Dean Godwin had once theorised that the elder dragon heart powering the defences of Dawnlight Palace in the capital had, over the centuries since it was claimed by the founding emperor and his companions, matured into something approaching the level of an ancient dragon's heart. It was likely the single most potent magical artifact the empire possessed. Scarlett wondered how it measured against this heart, taken from an ancient dragon who had lived for millennia.

She approached and stopped before the crystal, peering into its depths. The inner radiance drew at her vision, the raw force of it prickling along her skin and raising the hairs at her nape. Then she circled to the opposite side. The sensation shifted. Here, the crystal's surface was drained of colour, mottled in ashen grey and pallid white, like something leached of vitality from within. Just looking at it stirred a quiet wrongness in her chest. It also stirred the power within her legacy.

Olgolzkreh's body had been corrupted by the Anomalous One's influence. The taint had run even deeper than Scarlett had initially realised. But even when that power had saturated his flesh and bones, it had never touched his heart. Its presence there now was her doing. The vast quantities of Anomalous power festering within the ancient dragon had far exceeded anything Scarlett could contain. She'd examined the problem closely and found no way to lessen it.

There had only been one vessel she believed capable of bearing it all. Olgolzkreh's heart. The very core that anchored the greater part of an ancient dragon's might. Funnelling that power into it hadn't been simple. Scarlett had acted as the intermediary, shaping the transfer, but without Slate's ability to adjudicate this world's laws—and without using the heart itself as a source—it wouldn't have been even remotely possible. And it would have failed outright if Olgolzkreh hadn't cooperated.

If he hadn't used his last strength to steady the process, to bare himself, and to surrender his heart for them to claim. Nol'viz and Fynn had been the ones to carve it from his chest. Scarlett had been the one to sever the final bindings and seal his slow death. Her gaze dropped to the arrays etched into the stone, then to her left hand. There was a faint imprint on her skin. A final mark from Olgolzkreh. Not a gift so much as a keystone that allowed the rest to hold.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Slate had said Anomalous power resisted permanence. To be contained, not only did the local laws within Olgolzkreh's heart need to be altered, but something extra was required to work against that impermanence. She pressed her hand to the crystal heart. It felt cold and searing at once, and a dense pressure rolled through her body. The imprint flared white.

The heart answered with a low pulse, and a half-formed shape began to rise above its surface. Wings of pale light unfurled. A tail of fine, translucent scales coiled, tapering to a sharp curl. Slender horns swept back in smooth arcs. A small, ethereal dragon settled atop the heart, breathing in a slow, steady rhythm with closed eyes. The final Will of Olgolzkreh, imprinted upon Scarlett and anchored to the heart through Slate's authority so that it would endure beyond his death.

Its duty was to manage the Anomalous power within. Scarlett was still surprised that Olgolzkreh had agreed to create it. Fynn stepped up beside her again, studying the sleeping dragon.

"It's cute," he said. Scarlett glanced at him. He had cleaned off most of the blood, but the wounds remained.

"I was unaware you were familiar with such concepts," she replied. He shrugged.

"I've learned."

"I doubt Olgolzkreh would have appreciated that description."

"Probably not." Scarlett regarded him for a moment longer, then returned her attention to the heart. They stayed like that for a while until Kat approached, jerking a thumb over her shoulder towards the others.

"We've packed everything and cleaned what we can. Looks like you're done too. Are we heading out?" Scarlett's eyes shifted past her. The stone beyond the formations was smeared with blood. It resembled the aftermath of a massacre.

"Yes," she said.

"We are leaving." Kat glanced towards Olgolzkreh.

"You sure it's fine to just leave him like that?" Scarlett looked over the body as well, considering it briefly before nodding.

"Yes. Let this serve as his grave." The corpse of an ancient dragon was probably beyond measure in value. It was also impossibly large. There was no feasible way to transport it. Instead, they'd taken what they could—blood, scales, teeth, and other viable remnants—which the others had spent the last stretch of time extracting and securing. Compared to the dragon's enormity, though, it was negligible. Compared to anything they were ever likely to need, it was excessive.

There was something undeniably macabre about harvesting a dragon while it was drawing its last breath. Olgolzkreh, however, hadn't shown any objection. If anything, he'd facilitated it. Scarlett found that strange. She had expected more pride in that regard. But it was as if, once he'd decided he would die at their hands, all of those concerns had disappeared.

"Do you have a plan for how we're carrying that?" Kat asked, nodding towards the heart. Her gaze lingered on the small dragon sleeping atop it.

"We carry it."

"…Are you volunteering yourself? Because I'm not getting paid enough for that." Scarlett chuckled lightly, then motioned to Carnwedain, who stood just beyond the outermost array, watching in silence with his sword planted tip-first against the stone.

"If you would assist us." He remained motionless for a few seconds longer, then released the sword. It dropped and vanished into a shadow that pooled briefly at his feet, courtesy of Nol'viz. Carnwedain stepped forward and halted before the heart. The dark surface of his helm reflected its radiance as he bent, wrapped both arms around the crystal, and lifted. The heart rose with a deep, resonant hum. The small dragon didn't stir.

"My thanks," Scarlett said. She knew Fynn could have managed the weight as well if necessary, but Carnwedain was the only one large enough to do so without it being unwieldy. Unfortunate as it was, the heart couldn't be stored in any of their spatial artifacts. Its size alone made that impossible, and they'd confirmed that the Anomalous power bound inside it disrupted containment abilities such as Nol'viz's shadow storage. They regrouped with the others, ensuring everything was secured.

After casting one final look at Olgolzkreh's immense, lifeless form, they left the cavern. They had been brought here after defeating Olgolzkreh's crazed Will, but a stone passage led away from the inner chamber. It wound upward through the mountain before opening onto a snow-covered ledge high upon Haetrach, the tallest of the peaks in the Whitdown Mountains. In the distance, Grehazant rose slightly below them, outlined against a pale moon.

"Do we have a plan for getting back there?" Shin asked. Scarlett studied the span between the mountains. She realised now that returning might be more inconvenient than she'd thought. She couldn't teleport them across that distance right now, and travelling on foot was out of the question. Before she could consider alternatives, Fynn stepped forward. Wind gathered around him, first as a low current, then as a tightening gale that circled the group. In response, a faint light flared atop Grehazant's summit.

The wind surged. Scarlett's footing vanished as the gale tore them from the ledge. Her stomach lurched as they were hurled out over the open air. The mountain fell away beneath them while the wind roared past, clawing at clothes and hair. Cries broke out around her, and Scarlett only barely managed to force herself to remain steady as she did everything she could not to focus on the void below. As a group, they cut a direct path through the sky towards that light.

Eventually, they descended onto the same flattened shelf of mountainside just below Grehazant's summit, where pillars of carved stone ringed a broad platform. When Scarlett's boots met the ground, the world spun. For a moment, it felt like the stone shifted beneath her, and she was still suspended in air. Her heart hammered in her ears.

"Fynn," Allyssa muttered with a nauseously pale grimace, "I'm going to remember this."

"So will I," Kat said, bracing herself against a pillar with one arm clamped over her stomach. She bent and retched onto the snow. Scarlett averted her eyes. Fynn looked between them with a puzzled expression.

"Okay?" Shin stepped up to him with a rigid posture, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Those were warnings." Off to the side, Rosa had simply lowered herself onto the snow. She lay flat, head tipped back, staring up at the stars as if they were gently rotating above her.

"Sleep with one eye open from now on, little Fyntrarth," she murmured.

"One eye open and a knife under your pillow, you airborne menace." Scarlett couldn't quite stop herself from fixing Fynn with a thin look of her own as she steadied her breath. Once the worst of the dizziness had passed through the group, though, she gestured towards the stair entrance leading down into the mountain. Rosa made no effort to rise. Sighing, Scarlett signalled to Fynn, who hauled the woman to her feet despite her languid resistance.

This earned him a fresh string of muttered threats regarding his eventual demise. They descended the stairs and passed once more through the hall beneath, making their way to the great stone doors leading to Grehalyr's chamber. The doors ground open at Fynn's touch. Inside, the colossal white wolf remained where it had lain. Fynn walked forward without a word and stopped before the still form. The rest of them kept their distance. Light welled from the wolf's body, enveloping it in a transparent radiance.

A powerful gale swept through the chamber, spiralling upward. Above them, wind and frost twisted into the tightening vortex that howled against the vaulted stone. The light shifted and streamed towards Fynn, wrapping around him. Grehalyr's remnant was acknowledging the completion of his trial. This was his third and final awakening. Fynn turned, his eyes glowing once more, luminous as they settled on Scarlett.

"There's a room behind Grehalyr," he said.

"I am aware," she replied. It contained the dungeon's final rewards.

"You can go there." She shook her head.

"No. We will wait." He hesitated, then gave a small nod. Seating himself upon the stone, he folded his legs and closed his eyes, settling into meditation as the currents of wind circled him. Scarlett observed him a moment longer before shifting her focus and summoning the system windows that had accumulated until now.

[Side quest completed: To kill an ancient] [Reward: A dragon's heart] [Side quest completed: Slay Olgolzkreh's Will] {Skill points awarded: 40} [Side quest completed: Decide Olgolzkreh's end] {Skill points awarded: 30} [Quest completed: Cleared The Howling Gale's Haunt (3/3)] {Skill points awarded: 45} [Companion Quest completed: The White Wolf] {Skill points awarded: 25} A heavy thud echoed through the chamber as Carnwedain set Olgolzkreh's heart upon the floor. Several heads turned towards the knight.

His helm was angled towards Fynn.

"…Make yourselves comfortable," Scarlett said, returning her attention to Fynn and the silent wolf at the far end of the chamber.

"This will take some time." There was little left to do here. Once Fynn's awakening concluded, they only had to face the descent from Grehazant and the journey home.