Chương 102: 2-0 Prologue

"Ugh, what is wrong with this place?" Josef complained as he shook off some more sand. By his best guess, he was currently in his skill-choice world, which may or may not be inside his head. Only the once flat desert landscape had turned turbulent and treacherous. Point in case, he had just rolled down a dune and gotten a face full of sand. This place had been a lot less grating on him when he only came by for a quick visit.

Now though, he had been wandering this place for what felt like days, walking aimlessly through the broken world. Broken was about the best description he could think of, with some dunes frozen in lumbering shapes, as if the wind had just begun violently blowing them away. Not that there was any moving air as far as he could tell. Even traversing the valleys between them wasn't safe, because some of them bore sheer, bottomless, jagged holes.

These rifts, which looked like an earthquake had happened, made no sense, considering it was all made from sand, but apparently, nobody ever told this place about logic. Also, most of the sand was a stark white. If this place really was inside him, then all that mana had really fucked him up..

"Lapis! Anyone! Is someone out there!?" he called for help, as he had done many times before. As always, nobody answered him. Unlike the last few times in that place, he could find neither his familiars nor the statuesque dragoness. At least he never grew tired, hungry, or thirsty, leading him to believe that his physical body was probably being taken care of. Hopefully. Surely they had made it out of the dungeon by now, right?

If only he hadn't allowed himself to relax and close his eyes, Josef mourned, though he understood he couldn't have staved it off forever. Stuck in a routine of half climbing, half sliding his way through the desert, shouting his occasional pleas for help, an unknown amount of time passed him by. Leaving behind another barren dune, he could barely stop himself from sliding down a pit that was much wider than the usual pits he had avoided.

It also wasn't nearly as deep, leaving just about enough room to hide a small house inside. Or a dragon the size of one, for that matter. She was tilted, and half her body covered in sand, but there she was. Lapis. Carefully making his way down, partially climbing down the dragoness's body, he arrived before her. There was no mistaking the dinner plate sized hole in her stomach, which emitted a soft, blue glow.

Josef didn't know if he should be proud or ashamed of the amount of progress his last outburst had created. Remembering how his fist had painfully drummed into the stone-like scales, he had expected a little more.

"Well, you have seen better days, haven't you?" he wondered aloud, taking in the sand-covered state of his scaly patron.

"And who is to blame for that?" a voice huffed into his ear. Almost achieving unassisted flight, Josef hoped in fright and turned around wildly.

"Who? Where?" Then, after giving the panic a second to recede, "Lapis?"

"It appears your brain is not entirely unused. I had my doubts after witnessing your… escapades," the disembodied voice wafted around him like a breeze.

"Hey, all things considered, that didn't go too badly," he deflected her accusation.

"Look around you, whelp!" she suddenly snarled. A silent moment passed, in which he imagined her dramatically waving around a claw.

"Does that look like an acceptable outcome to you? It beggars belief that you still live with your heart in this state!" So this was a world inside the heartstone? It kind of made sense considering how and when it had first appeared. And if the usual state was the healthy default, then this was, admittedly, pretty bad. Still though…

"I had something important to do, and I got it done. I think." He could only assume that all of them, including Cana, were in a safe place by now.

"It was worth the damage." He knew he had chosen the wrong words when an icy chill went down his spine.

"Worth it? Risking the entirety of dragonkind for some mutt?" She may have had a point there, but her choice of words rankled him.

"How could you put your life on the line for some unremarkable pet? You could have just gotten a new one!" Her tone was a startling mix of anger and dismissiveness.

"Don't you call any of my friends pets, you overgrown lizard!" It was his turn to get just a little heated. Just who did Lapis think she was, talking like that? Lapis huffed.

"You'll have to grow out of this eventually, whelp. Mortals last for naught but a fleeting moment. Attachments like that are pointless."

"I'm mortal myself, in case you forgot. And you don't get to tell me who or what is worth my time." It would have been a lot easier to give her an angry glare if Lapis wasn't just speaking into his ears. With the petrified eyes of the dragoness too far up for comfort, he settled on staring at the glowing hole. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"For now. Though that hopefully won't last for long. No Drake before you had been guaranteed a path to dragonhood, so count yourself lucky you're too integral to deny, no matter how unsuitable you behave."

"Lucky?" Josef was getting this close to throwing hands at the dragoness.

"You kidnapped me! You took me from my home and stuck me in a world where I don't belong!" He knew he was getting heated, but this had festered in the back of his mind ever since he woke up in Aurum.

"So who gave you the fucking right to do this to me? To force me into this role? I never asked to be a Drake, or a goddamn dragon!" he could have continued to dig into the dragoness, but she interrupted him with a hiss.

"Don't speak foolishly. What does your inconvenience weigh compared to the safety of my own? Besides, there was a choice implemented in my ritual. After all, a heartstone cannot bond with an unwilling individual. You may regret your choices, but that is not grounds for a tantrum." Did he really accept her conditions and become a Drake willingly? It gave his anger pause. Receiving magic while getting to save people did sound like something he would do.

At least his current self would, so it stood to reason he felt the same with his full mental faculties.

"How would I know? My memory's been shot ever since I came here, so I don't even know what happened during your fancy ritual. I only really came to after your magic spat me out near the city." Josef's words grew quieter as he spoke.

"Can I also thank your ritual for that?" A silent air of hesitation hung over them, as seconds passed in silence.

"I suppose…" for once, Lapis sounded unsure.

"Pulling anything through the sea between worlds is highly experimental. Moving mortals through it? That's almost without precedent. And the only other dragon to ever do so didn't exactly leave notes for me to study.

"Something might have gone sub-optimally, I suppose," she ultimately admitted.

"Well, great," it was his turn to huff, dropping down to sit in the sand.

"So, assuming something did, in fact, go wrong. Which I neither admit nor you have proof of. Then, hypothetically, that would also explain why you entered Aurum without any of the gear I had prepared, or the educational texts I supplied." Josef wanted to deadpan her, but the stony belly above him felt impersonal, and the angle like a danger to his neck.

"Hypothetically, of course. In that case, I may or may not have dropped onto Aurum with nothing but my first familiar, some gold coins and a blue dre-" he hastily corrected himself, "a blue robe."

"What?" Lapis sounded startled.

"How dare you raid my personal wardrobe! That shouldn't have been anywhere near the ritual area!"

"Why would a dragon even have dresses? I mean robes!" he shook his head.

"Nevermind, that's not the point. Can't you check what went wrong? And maybe grab that gear while you're at it? Also, can my memories be restored? Because I would really like to recall my own parents, at the minimum."

"Do I look like a dragonet to be sent on errands? No, on all accounts," her verdict came immediately.

"Without recovering substantially more of my mana from the Stillness, this simulacrum won't be able to access my hoard. As for your memories… I don't have an affinity for that, but I have a very distant aunt who many consider unmatched in matters of the mind. If we free her, I'm sure she would be happy to take a look." That was less helpful than Josef had hoped, though at least there were options. Ridiculously far away options that required him to deal with at least another dragon.

He wasn't even sure he could stand his first one!

"A simulacrum?" he parroted her, hoping for an explanation. For once, Lapis actually obliged.

"I could hardly fit the entirety of myself into your heartstone without causing some catastrophic damage to both of us. Thus, I carved away a piece of myself, equipped it with the proper knowledge, and sealed it within your heartstone. Naturally, this part of my greater whole couldn't escape the Stillness either." Josef eyed the dinner-plate sized hole in Lapis's prison once more. All of this was only a fraction of her, and yet it had taken so much to free only a tiny piece? Who was he?

The Sisyphus of pushing mana?

"So, you're the warmup for the real deal afterwards?" he concluded, knowing full well his choice of words would upset the dragoness.

"Fine. Anyway, I have a lot more questions for you, Lapis."

"Then hold on to them, because you will receive no further answers today." She sounded entirely too smug about that reply. Then, before he could complain, she continued.

"Thanks to your lacking progress, I'm low on available mana. Further conversation will have to wait until I have recovered some more. Or until you do your task of countering the Stillness in me."

"But-" he wanted to protest.

"No buts," she admonished.

"You may count yourself lucky to be spared the rest of my criticism for the time being. Until that time comes, I command you not to strain your heart with any unnecessary use of mana. Your chaos affinity should lightly influence you, even without active spell-casting. Let it consume more of the affliction before you accidentally kill yourself." No more magic on his sickbed? That felt like a shameful fate for a healer.

Still, considering his horrendous state, he supposed that following the doctor's orders was wise, even if she had no bedside manner.

"And how am I supposed to get out of here? Or wake up, I guess?" he asked, feeling more than a little desperate for an answer before Lapis fell silent.

"I suppose I can hand out one last skill for you. You did hit the required threshold after all," her words were declining into a silent murmur. Only one?

"Don't I get a choice anymore? Also, why is it the last I get?"

"Hush now, whelp. Skills don't grow on trees, you know? If you want more, then put in the effort and make your own. Now, I'm gonna take a nice little nap, so go deal with this furry little pest." Josef was startled on the double. For one, he could just make his own skills instead of hoping for more handouts? That was great, though he already felt intimidated by how hard it would be, considering that was apparently a dragon thing to do.

Also, just as Lapis's voice faded, the sand near her front left claw suddenly jostled, as something dug up from there. Before he even had the time to brace himself or look at his newest ability, a furry projectile loosened from the ground and hit him hard enough to send him sprawling in the sand. Josef didn't even need to look down to recognize the trembling mess that had found him, feeling an old but cherished connection reignite.

"Hey there, little guy. Missed me?"

"Nibbles is overjoyed!" the little rat squeaked.

"The boss has returned to Nibbles alive and…" It looked like the rodent needed to chew on the phrase for a moment before he suddenly broke down in sobs.

"Nibbles has missed the boss!"

"I missed you too, Nibbles. Sorry for being gone so long," Josef patted his familiar apologetically. Waking up could wait for a few more minutes.