Music for today:
I Will Hold You Until the End — Emotional Epic Music
https://youtu.be/9zKlE-1uYk0
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Chapter 475: Collapse
Mid Afternoon - Early Summer : The Center of The Frost | Between Bahamut and The Forgotten Islands
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Noticing me remain quiet for a moment, the ancient continued with a haste. "W-We are between the southwestern archipelago, and Bahamut, the homeland of the dragons, my lord."
"Mm..." My mumble came out as an idle recognition that raised the hair on everyone's neck. "I've never known such warm waters to ice over like this."
"A-Ah, y-yes!" Another, much smaller dragon was quick to elaborate. "Around fifteen years ago, there was a rather major event that led to the beginning of what we have come to call the 'ice age'." He spoke fast without any weight to his tone. "Global temperatures plummeted, and large swaths of land, once grassy plains, were carved up by huge walls of ice that had sprouted from the ocean."
"What was the event?"
He stiffened, "W-We.. aren't entirely sure... It was like the world itself had flipped. No one saw any visible changes, but everyone felt it." Pulling out a small, worn book, he hastily flipped through pages before stopping on one to read, and continuing. "The day was called 'The Inversion'. Runes used for navigation called universal compasses flipped upside down, climate shifted drastically, and the entire landscape of ocean ecosystems changed."
-What the..?- It was unlike anything I had ever heard of throughout my journey across the universe. -Worlds with mana should have exceptionally stable climates... They shouldn't have ice ages without some major cataclysm.- A meteor impact or descent of a void eater.
But a 'flip' wasn't an example I knew of... -I was close to the surface when I woke up, so a major climate shift could've been caused by the mana vortex of my dragon sleep...-
But that didn't explain the 'flip' they all seemed to agree that they felt.
That was.. something entirely different.
Something I didn't even take as a possibility until a hint of familiarity appeared in the back of my mind. -Wait...- On Earth there was a thing I vaguely remembered studying called geomagnetic reversals—events where a planets magnetic poles would suddenly flip.
Though my memories of the topic were quite spotty, I could recall enough to know the kind of extreme climate shifts they were theorized to cause. -It likely wouldn't be enough to cause a major ice age on its own, but...- Combined with the other circumstances I created, it was a much more likely scenario.
The question then became... -How long was I out before the ice age started..?-
Given the serpent I was in wasn't just rotting but healed, it had to have been a substantial stretch of time. -But this does give me hope my bodies aging was more thanks to time dilation than actual time passing...-
Though.. looking down toward Delphi, I felt my stomach twist. -I hope that magnetic flip isn't the kind of omen I think it is...-
I may have survived my own gamble, but thinking of the possibility that Delphi hadn't made me sick...
So much so, I had to distract myself.
"Huff..." Letting out a heavy breath that filled the top of the barrier with fog, I finally returned my eyes to the ancient and forced firmness into my voice. "Hera Monachikós, Im sure you're familiar with the name, but have you heard it recently?"
The dragons all twitched in unison—the silence hanging a moment before the ancient chose to take the lead. "We are all very familiar, sir..." His voice carried a quiver not entirely present before. "She revealed herself about a year after 'The Inversion' as the new monarch of Bahamut. Her actual existence is a bit of a rumor though..."
"Hoh..." A sigh of relief passed instantly.
Knowing she wouldn't have waited long to reveal herself, with or without me, it was evidence it at least hadn't been thousands of years since I fell into my sleep like my body said it had. -With how much divinity my soul's cleansing gave me, it seems to of just dilated time to a ridiculous degree.
Meaning for me and the serpent, it had indeed been millennia, but to the outside world, perhaps only a few decades.
Though a few decades was still nothing to scoff at given the world's state before my sleep.
"So," starting again, I spoke with an audible ease, "What brings a ship of Toria so far south? And so deep into draconic territory, no less?"
Everyone suddenly flinched in unison—human eyes going wide while dragons fell to the floor.
-Huh..?- It was an obvious admission of guilt.. but.. -to what..?- Feeling my expression fall flat, my pupils thinned and landed on the other ancient, a man who had been especially tense since the beginning. "I hope you can explain."
He was the only to keep his eyes above my paws.. but upon the recognition of my question, it-too fell. "U-Uh..." Losing his breath, his eyes widened, pupils thinned, and wings flared faintly.
It wasn't until silence hooked into the air like a barbed blade that the nerdy elder returned. "S-Sir, Draconic territory has been.. largely dissolved."
The hair on my neck stood instantly, with my voice falling emotionless and dark in the same breath. "Excuse me?" *VWOOM*
No one was spared. Freezing the air with my aura, everyone froze in place, with some of the weaker laborers choking and starting to suffocate.
The Elder's calm vanished in a blink. "W-We were not related to it, s-sir!"
*WOOM* The pressure of my aura multiplied. "Then you better be quick explaining exactly what happened."
He nodded with tears and haste.
And in-turn, I eased my aura.
But the air had already been changed. With no one but the one I called to speak lifting their gaze, even the most naive humans kept their eyes away.
They all merely listened as the elder rushed to speak. "D-During the last Coming of Age ceremony, when everyone was gathered in Atlas for the final ceremony, 'The Inversion' occurred, and as if by signal, a large scale terrorist attack followed."
My breath froze cold.
"A.. large majority of Bahamut's next generation died in the attack.. and the heart of Atlas was razed to the ground."
My mind stuttered.
Everything I had done to try and prepare... Everything Hera had created in order to prevent the attack from happening...
Was fruitless...
"It.. wasn't entirely limited to Bahamut either... In the same night, thirteen other attacks occurred around the world, across the Forgotten Islands and through Siratha—though none were to the scale of Atlas..."
I couldn't find words.
"It wasn't until a year later that the lady claiming to be Hera appeared."
-Why would she wait so long..?-
"With the prevention of attacks on the Cabinet and similar points of interest, the political body of Bahamut remained intact, but the attack itself.. claimed far too many... So many families lost their children that suicide and self-isolation became extremely common... Dragons moved out of Bahamut to settle in humanoid nations, and in the end.. Bahamut's population dwindled to about a fifth of what it was..."
My heart sank like a rock.
I may have been alive...
But at what cost...
If I hadn't gone to the depths of the Death's Gape, I could have prevented it... I could have been with Hera and my family to fight against the chaos, unite people, and strike back at the Holy Kingdom, the ones I was certain were behind it all...
And yet, there I was.. the strongest among my kind.. crouched inside a small barrier talking to survivors after having essentially hidden myself away.
It was sickening...
I was furious...
But even through my rage, some things simply didn't add up...
Hera was never so incompetent. With or without me, she and her forces could have prevented the attack. -That's not even including how much intel she likely had...-
Yet even still, Atlas was razed, and Hera and Bahamut didn't retaliate?
I wasn't buying it...
"The attack," breaking the silence with a suffocating chill in my tone, I forced the elder to look me in the eyes. "Why didn't people fight back against the organization behind it?"
The elder's anxiety froze with confusion before continuing after a pause. "Ah, uh... It wasn't really a terrorist attack.. even if that is what some claimed."
-What?- "Explain."
"W-Well," He tensed once more, "while the initial attack was with a series of extremely large explosions, hardly a few minutes after, colossal serpents, far larger than this one here," he motioned to the body they were harvesting, "they surfaced and.. did more damage..."
-Ah...- That was when it clicked.
That event.. that attack... -That was the vision Hera saw of my death...- The vision the cultists were using to convince other to betray their own kind to save themselves.. and their children...
"Hah..." My chest felt like it was getting crushed.
Even if I had remained, the outcome would not have changed, perhaps it would have been even worse...
Had I remained, Jormungandr would have come to meet me on the surface.. and killed me...
So no matter how much my stomach ached.. no matter how much my brain seized with rage and regret...
This was the best outcome...
...Somehow...
-Fuck...-
All I could do was simply pray my family survived the chaos...
*Woom* Twisting some of my divinity, I almost instantly found Hera's presence bounce back, calm as if asleep, but alive. -To the west... She must be at the Cabinet...-
That was my destination, and not wanting to let anxiety twist my stomach more than it already had, I spread my wings to leave, piercing the opposite sides of the barrier with unreasonable ease before suddenly hesitating.
Before I left, there was one last thing I wanted to confirm. "You lot," my voice, burdened with the worries of my mind, came out laced with blood, "what are you here for..?"
The humans jolted, but the ancient jumped out in the same breath like a shield. "W-We are here to harvest one of these serpents that were caught in the ice!"
My gaze thinned.
"W-W-We are mercenaries commissioned by the 'Torian Merchant Group' to retrieve monster parts! Since the ice age began, serpents will frequent the glaciers here, and the small ones occasionally get stuck in the surface."
It wasn't a lie. "So you don't have any ties with the Holy Kingdom?"
They shook their heads vigorously. "T-Toria is at war with them!"
"Is that so..?" Locking eyes with an unsuspecting human, a laborer that had nearly as much mana as some of the fighters, I looked back at the elder. "Then allow me to kill the spy for you."
Almost immediately, the human went wide-eyed, and moved to jump backward. *Fwip...*
But like he had jumped back into a wall of infinitely thin wire, his body collapsed into a formless slush in the next moment.
"Consider that a favor of good faith. If the rest of you are truly only tied to Toria, come to the Cabinet in Eastern Bahamut. I'll treat you and your families well." Knowing a wing flap would kill several humans I gently bent down before leaping up out of the barrier and taking to the sky like a shadow.
Even as I left, I held doubts about their intentions, but nevertheless, I had far larger fish to fry.
Beginning my flight toward Hera's presence, I had to hold my breath.
Anything could have happened.. and I needed to prepare for the worst...
Even if the thought of it alone made my blood boil...
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