Chương 79: 146 - First Grove

The sprawling forest of the First Grove rushed to meet Vivi as she plummeted, streaking like an arrow toward the powerful presence she had detected. She slammed to a stop in a gust of wind, studied the figure below, and nodded in satisfaction. Exactly who she'd hoped for. The young dragon princess sat cross-legged on a large rock in the center of a pond thick with algae and lily pads. Her closed eyes and furrowed brow spoke of deep concentration.

One hand clutched at an amulet pulled from underneath her chestplate, and green energy circled the exposed artifact as she refined and channeled power into the appropriate gem. After a brief hesitation, Vivi descended, landing softly on the water a safe several meters away. A ripple spread out as the bottoms of her feet brushed against the serene surface.

"Not finished then, I take it?" Embralyne cracked an eye open. Vivi couldn't tell whether the dragon had sensed her coming, but no surprise showed on her face.

"I haven't slept in two days, demon. A Divine Treasure is not easy to charge, and I suspect not even for you." Vivi internally blushed. She hadn't meant the question as a criticism.

"Of course. I'm impressed you've completed the other three gems already."

"After all the rudeness you've shown, now you patronize me too?" Well, this isn't off to a great start, Vivi thought. Embralyne stopped distilling life mana and tucked the Fourflame Amulet back into her armor. She stood, rested a hand on the pommel of her sword, and fixed Vivi with a cold, downward stare.

"I wondered if you would show." That had Vivi tilting her head a fraction, despite everything.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Fear of retribution." Vivi winced. Not that she feared retribution, but the fact that Embralyne seemed to think it would be deserved.

"I've already said this, but I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. It stemmed from necessity. I can explain now."

"I have every right to attack you where you stand. You're fortunate I allow you to elaborate at all." Vivi tried taking a page from her steward's book. If blatant flattery worked for him, why not for her?

"You're very benevolent, Your Highness." The dragon's eyes narrowed.

"Sarcasm? Yet further insolence?" Vivi guessed her deadpan voice failed to project sincerity well. Life just isn't fair sometimes, she thought, mentally pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. To skip any more mangled introductions, she moved to business.

"As I promised, we can talk. There's no more need to play games." Unless Embralyne rejected Vivi's earnest plea, a possibility she couldn't rule out. Which did mean she needed to be careful with her words. She couldn't give definitive proof of her identity.

"First, I'm not a dragon." She waved a hand over her face and let the illusion melt away. Red tear trails appeared, and even Embralyne stirred despite surely knowing who Vivi was. The dragon's frown deepened.

"Since I don't think you've heard, Prismarche has been taken care of. With some help from me, the Archbishop cleansed the soul damage they suffered. I haven't had the chance to offer you my personal thanks yet for how you saved everyone, so." She bowed at the waist.

"Thank you. You protected a lot of lives that day."

"Your relaying of that situation is appreciated, but unnecessary." Embralyne sniffed.

"I am more interested in justifications for your recent actions." Vivi rose from her bow. Does that mean she believes me? She had expected more pushback on the identity front.

"You've probably put it together yourself," she said slowly, "but I was trying to do you a favor. Give a reason to pursue across the Kingdoms so you could charge the Amulet. I minimized our conversations so that you had the most…" She cut herself off. Using the phrase 'plausible deniability' might come off as an accusation. Might imply that Embralyne knew what was going on and had used Vivi as an excuse. But there were non-zero odds the draconic princess had truly deluded herself in pursuit of her ulterior motive.

"…reason to continue," Vivi finished lamely.

"Since I initially intended to let you return—"" Let me return?" came the hot retort. Vivi was still exhausted from tiptoeing around the Archbishop. But it seemed like Embralyne would be even more of a headache.

"My apologies, Princess. Only in the sense that I wouldn't have intervened."

"Intervened?"

"By offering my help. I wouldn't have stopped you."

"As if you could?" Even she has to know the Sorceress most definitely 'could.' Exasperated, Vivi said, "If you could let me finish, I would be enormously grateful."

"You dislike being interrupted, or dismissed without consideration? Interesting. That's all you've done to me these past several days." Vivi winced. Touché. She deserved that. She took a breath and continued.

"But circumstances changed. Or at least my evaluation of the situation. Considering the debt I owe you for your actions at Prismarche—even if you deny a debt exists—I would be happy to assist with whatever brought you out of your homeland to charge the Fourflame Amulet." Embralyne opened her mouth, but Vivi barreled forward. Any sort of back-and-forth wouldn't go well. She wanted to get her whole reasoning out before they discussed the details.

"If you want to turn down that offer since it's a private quest, that's fine too. It's clear that if there were real danger, you would accept my extended hand. You helping Prismarche more than enough proves your moral character." Embralyne's expression twisted into something Vivi couldn't quite decipher—embarrassment, or maybe a grimace? Which wasn't promising. Did it imply Embralyne wasn't sure she could handle the problem herself? Vivi had assumed the dragon had things under control.

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"But I'm not just here about whatever's happening with the Fourflame Amulet," Vivi said.

"There are things your father and I need to discuss that affect the safety of both of our lands. You saw it yourself. I'm not sure what your family already knows about the dimensional boundary and the void, but it's a substantial threat. Greater than the Cataclysms, exponentially."

"Is that so?" Embralyne didn't sound disbelieving, exactly, but she clearly wasn't taking Vivi at her word either. Vivi could provide proof—she could teleport to the Institute and bring back the severed arm of a creature the Grand System had labeled a deity. But that would destroy her backup plan. So she doubled down on the absurdity of her claims.

"I flew into the breach at Meridian before the gate closed. Inside, I found hundreds of monsters above level nineteen hundred. I also encountered echoes of concepts, enormously powerful beings that took familiar forms from our world. One of them was Remian Voss, an 'Echo of He Who Glimpsed Infinity.' He had found and slain something the System called a voidgod. It was level two thousand and six." The outrageous assertion had Embralyne's expression blanking.

"Preposterous. Beyond two thousand?"

"Yes." Unfortunately, even if Vivi wanted to substantiate that story, she couldn't. The severed arm merely identified itself as belonging to a voidgod. Remian had been the one who explained the monster's level. Everyone she'd spoken to had taken her word, but dragons might not be so trusting.

"That same echo made troubling allusions," she continued, "which I'd like to discuss with Cinereus. Add that to this 'Twilight Celebrant' having fled into that realm, along with other… revelations…" She was referring to the incident with the Archbishop, of course, in which divine power and its source might be far more tangible and thus exploitable than she'd assumed.

"… means that it's of the utmost importance that we talk. I understand that the Dragon King prefers isolation and didn't interfere even with the Cataclysms, but the simple truth of the matter is that this threat is larger than those. To the extent it might mean the end of everything if it goes unchecked." The Dragon King's isolation had made sense—selfish sense, but sense nonetheless—because the Cataclysms were for the most part mindless. Roaming natural disasters.

If they'd been intelligent and hellbent on destroying the world, they could have. But they weren't, and thus staying out of their way had served the Dragon King well.

"At the very least, I wish to plead my case in person. And apologize for previous actions." She wondered if it was tacky to add on this last part, but she did so anyway.

"I also brought gifts, to make amends." Embralyne's expression had become more and more reserved as Vivi went on, which was both bad and good. Bad because not knowing what the dragon thought of the proposition was worrying, and good because it meant she saw how grave the situation was—since her sobering up showed that she was taking it seriously. Vivi had been counting on that. No matter Embralyne's eccentric behavior, she rose to the occasion. With mounting anxiety, Vivi waited for a response.

She would rather not follow through with her convoluted backup plan. If she could get Embralyne's blessing and be taken to the Sky-Pillar Range without some ridiculous farce, her life would be ten times easier. Dryly, she thought, Though put that way, there's no way it'll happen. Nothing's ever simple.

"You speak like you wish to go and see him now," Embralyne finally said.

"Why would I not relay these words and have you await his response?" Vivi winced.

"I won't lie to you. It isn't so urgent I need to be taken to him right this second. But I think any wasted time could have huge consequences. I ask that you set aside previous grievances and allow this request." Admittedly, she was also hoping Embralyne would use the petition as an excuse to show her whatever was happening with the Fourflame Amulet. But she didn't voice that part aloud. Either Embralyne's need for help was true and pressing, and that would influence her decision, or it wasn't and wouldn't.

Explaining the reasoning would only prick the dragon's pride. She remained silent, some unknown calculus playing behind her smoldering orange eyes. Vivi's anxiety grew.

"I've done research on void energy, too," she said when the quiet went on for too long. She summoned and held up her notebook.

"I have no doubt your family already knows much about that threat, but I've learned a few things I believe even your father or Solfirus hasn't. There's been three breaches in the past month—more are likely to follow. Perhaps one will happen in the Sky-Pillar Range. It's best to be prepared." Embralyne bristled, and Vivi mentally chided herself for yet another slip-up.

"Not that your people aren't already prepared. But more countermeasures are always better for threats of this scale." At last, Embralyne answered.

"These are interesting propositions, but there is a fundamental problem."

"There is?"

"Indeed. That I am not yet certain you are who you say you are. Everything you've told me could be fabricated, an elaborate deception. Do you think me so naïve as to not recognize that possibility?" The dragon scoffed.

"So, before I give you an answer, I have a demand."

"And that is?" Vivi asked warily, sensing what was coming.

"Prove it."

"Prove what?" In a single fluid motion, quick even by Vivi's standards, Embralyne drew her sword with a ring of metal. The air around the woman warped as heat waves radiated from her—a sign she'd reached for the dragonfire in her soul.

"I am rather irritated with you, demon, regardless of what your identity might be. So the least you could do in apology is offer a good fight. Only afterward will I deliver my verdict." Embralyne didn't wait for Vivi's input. The rock the draconic princess had been standing on disintegrated as she exploded off it, propelling herself toward Vivi with her enormous heirloom sword raised in two hands. The distance between them vanished, and Vivi's perception of time slowed to a crawl.

Embralyne was faster even than the Red Tithe. She was a dragon, and Vivi hadn't buffed herself in advance. Oh, come on. Is the whole world like this? Vivi [Blinked] away. A huge geyser of water burst upward upon Embralyne's sword impacting the pond. Steam obscured Vivi's view.

"We should at least take it somewhere else," she said as Embralyne emerged, stalking in a combative stance from the cloud. Vivi might have tried to talk the dragon down, but even she could recognize how low the odds of success there were. Embralyne had been spoiling for a fight since day one.

"We don't want to draw the Keeper." Embralyne hesitated at Vivi's naming of the ancient being, but she also immediately snorted in incredulity.

"So long as we don't touch the Heartwood, he won't come for us. A few uprooted trees won't attract his attention. How easy do you think earning an audience with a Primordial is? Don't jest." Primordial? Vivi hadn't heard that term before. To be fair, she truly didn't know what the Keeper was, nor the Mother of Fire. She had vague ideas from tangential quest lines or cutscenes where they'd appeared, but those instances had presented them specifically as mystical and unknown figures.

Which was yet another reminder of why she wanted to make contact with the Dragon King. He and his people had knowledge nobody else in the world did.

"But fine," Embralyne said.

"Out of respect for his domain, if nothing else." Her eyes narrowed.

"Some people care about hospitality, and not destroying another person's home. Perhaps the concept is foreign to you." Okay, that one's on Vivisari. It wasn't me who blew up your palace. At worst, she'd done it as a character in a game, and obviously she couldn't be faulted for every action under that context.

"Do we have to do this?" Vivi asked, knowing the answer.

"If you are who you say you are, then you can prove it to me now in triplicate." Well, no. She couldn't prove anything. She was in the same dilemma as before: she wanted to keep her backup plan. But Vivi could give the dragon a satisfying fight that still made the level discrepancy clear, while staying in the possible range of 'unknown powerful dragon' but not 'definitely the Sorceress.'

It might strain Vivi's reasoning for turning herself in should Embralyne refuse a swift escort to the Sky-Pillar Range under more honest terms, but at this point, a fight was inevitable, and pretending to lose was off the table too. Vivi had already put a [Spatial Lock] on the other dragon, suggesting an enormous mastery in magic, well beyond Embralyne's skill. Thus, she would know Vivi was faking weakness and would only take offense.

"Very well. Follow me." She [Blinked] away, expecting the dragon to follow. Something she realized only after the fact was probably unwise, since it mirrored their last encounter—and that encounter was exactly why Embralyne was so agitated. I promise I'll be gentle with your daughter, Cinereus, she mentally sighed. But she is asking for it.