A Benevolent Evil Dragon

I'm in hell. Rats with inverted heads and metal quills, one eyed horse giants, undead nixies and who knows what else prowls this land… I am frustrated. Even as a soul with no flesh and hormones to dictate what I should feel, I still feel my frustration, my worry, my annoyance, even if muted. How am I supposed to catch my bearing if going to relax in a pond results in dealing with monsters that could at any moment tear off Edith's head or put me in a trance, or I could fall asleep mid-fight and be at the mercy of whatever creature finds me like that…

I punch a bookshelf, causing it to fall yet leave the books floating in place. They fall right after I focus on them. This whole place is a representation of my soul, physics are a mere suggestion of a memory, so it should not surprise me but it still makes me snap out, or maybe I just forget my anger. I look down at my hand and see a flicker of chaos mana, an after effect that follows my movement. This place has already been altered… Whatever that means. I have a soul I shouldn't be allowed to have and it got hurt by a goddess and tainted by mana that I can't control.

I almost find it amusing that I am using this time which I will soon lose, when I have my emotions muted, in order to process my emotions and all the absurdities I've been through in the past short while. Screaming into the void before throwing the memory of doing so in it cannot be good, who knows how much time I spent doing that already?

For now I prepare myself and then start writing. As always, it hurts. It hurts less than normal, which is an interesting implication to say the least, but it hurts nonetheless. I burn into a blank book the title of "Bestiary" then start detailing the bits of information I can steal from my own brain. The mutant animals, the giants that tried to kill mother, the wyverns, and finally I write down what I know about dragons, moving the memory of my anatomy into a page all on its own. I make references to myths from my old world, invisible threads forming to act as hyperlinks, momentarily turning the library into a conspiracy theorist's bedroom.

Most of this stuff is likely wrong, but just by having possibilities prepared I should have some idea of what to do when the time comes. It's not much since I don't want to stay stuck here for too long and risk oversleeping, but I manage to prepare what I know about folk monsters north of france.

It takes a moment after I am done, but my eyes open and my body freezes up as I hear voices. I close all but one eye and try to look in the direction of said sound, stopping at the sight of armor. Edith is leaning against a tree, talking with the group from before, though this time it seemed to have expanded a bit. Going by the light I don't think too much time has passed, maybe a few hours, but that means I am still exhausted. I can't kill this many people… One of them looks in my general direction and I am forced to close my eye and sit still. I am thankfully very rock-looking right now, so despite being dead out in the open I am still safe. They wouldn't be talking so normally if they knew I was here, after all.

"Am I supposed to be grateful? If I had relied on your kindness I would be food for that vengeful songstress. You are lucky I was clothed by the time you came, I don't take kindly to intrusions." Edith seemed angrier than I've ever seen her, but I could feel a bit of worry behind her bravado.

"I understand your outrage, but I still had to make sure you were safe. Only after my companion here talked with his own did it come out that there's been sightings of this monster… It took a while to stop the caravan and gallop here, so please understand that we came as swiftly as we could. If you truly are safe, then all the more reason for us to leave you be…"

"Not so fast." It was a surprisingly feminine voice that intervened. Opening my eye again I count about four people. The blonde, the earth and nature guy, the woman and another man different from the soldier from before. Both her and the other man shared black hair with faintly green accents and an affinity for air. An actual one, not the weak thing the bandit had. "It is still not clear how you ended up killing the monster. Or why its chest is torn open."

I blink, then feel inwards and sure enough I find something… It's not too great since I was unconscious when I apparently ate the thing, but I feel the idea of an artistic murder bouncing about in the back of my head. Great. I ate rotten meat… I sure hope my disease resistance is as strong as I guessed.

"I don't see why I should even explain such things. You've outstayed your "concern" long ago." I see her tense as the air guy takes a more ready stance, holding a spear in his hand. Getting a better look it seems all but the blonde soldier are just about ready to attack, the mundane man looking between Edith and his companions with confusion and fear, before taking a step back.

"Maybe," says the earth user "but it's clear that there's something strange happening here. You're a third rate witch and yet you claim to slaughter bandits hardened by war and an ambusher like this songstress? We both know your fire isn't that strong."

The blonde man audibly gasped when Edith was called "witch"... well, witch is what I am translating it as, but the actual word was something like "wrong mage" or "taboo mage", so it fits. Ah, dumb, taboo… For whatever reason her way of doing magic is wrong compared to theirs…

"See," the woman flashes a dangerous smile, "I think that the reason you're alive is some kind of artifact or foreign masterpiece. Something strong and absolutely seeped in mana that you hid in your arm. Isn't that right Roland?"

"Don't see why else you'd have so much mana of a different affinity in your arm." Earth guy, well, Roland mentions before cutting off any escape Edith still had. "Now, I think it would be best for you to part with it. Nothing good comes from a peasant girl running around with something so precious. Tell you what, I'll give you a gold for the arm."

Edith looks angry, but tired. Her eyes wander over to the blonde man who is still staying behind. He seems ashamed for a moment, then shakes his head. "Sorry girl… can't get involved with lords for a young peasant witch…" which is only returned with a sigh.

It's clear that the mercenaries were running out of patience but Edith did catch their attention. Incidentally she looked my way and noticed my eye, which made her seem at least a bit more confident. I can't disappoint her… I carefully rip the silvery pouch around my neck and breathe mana out on it. Earth, wind and water, this is what I have to work with. I don't know how to use death or mind and I can't get anything close to consistent with chaos, so I filter as much as I can through the silver and start forming two separate, distinct spells, namely the whisper spell and an amplified earth manipulation one.

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Roland seems competent in magic and the other guy has a spear way too close to Edith for comfort. Using sound on an air mage might be a problem so I target Roland with that while having the little pebble I picked up with magic aimed at the spearman. Then I moved the rock away enough from me to make it seem like it came from somewhere else, hopefully not drawing their attention since I can't run towards them in time to abuse their surprise. Let's see, round stone, give it spin, shave the imperfection to make it aerodynamic, pile up mana in a directional modifier, almost ready.

"Close, but not quite. Not quite at all. I don't have any artifact or such thing, my arm's cursed." As she says this, her arm turns to its charred, scarred form, drawing shock and disgust from them. "The curse empowers my magic in exchange for ruining me like this." I don't get why she starts monologuing like a shounen character, but I don't have the spare brain power to think on that. The rock is spinning fast enough that it's starting to make sound, but it's still not quite the one hit kill I want. "The reason I've survived so far is because of something I have, true, but it's not really a "thing" if you follow."

Roland figures it out first, shouting a curse and taking a step back, throwing off my aim a bit so instead of targeting his eardrum I end up broadcasting the sound of a feedback loop in his temple which still makes him fall clutching his head, but doesn't do actual damage. The rock flies through the air, whistling like an arrow before exploding as it hits the back of the woman's knee, making her fall. The spearman screams for his apparent sister, turning around just enough to let Edith blow off some of her fire straight into the tree behind her, making it burn with purple flame.

We completely fucked up our starting volley, but Edith doesn't even seem bothered, instead pointing her hand at the man as he points back his spear, whistling to stop him in his track.

"Now, before you do something dumb like trying to attack me, you should think about the fact that this was all just a friendly warning."

She speaks in a confident tone as she turns her palm towards the defenseless dual mage and the crying wind woman with her knee busted up. The spearman looks at them, then back at Edith, then spits on the ground and drops his spear, raising his hands. Edith nods towards the others, including the blondie, who end up obeying. Roland at least catches his breath while the spearman tries to help his sister.

"Alright, it seems we made a mistake. No blood was shed," aside from a bit of the woman's, but who's keeping track, "so we can each go our separate ways, no need to keep a grudge now, right?"

To my shock, Edith looks relieved and just nods, but this doesn't sit right with me. A moment ago I may have been worried about what to do, but now that I got a moment to catch my breath, it is clear. Thankfully my sound rune is still around, I just need to feed a bit more mana into it, before whispering to her.

"Don't let them off easy. They were going to kill you. Artifact was a guess. If they kill you, they steal the wagon and the credit for the bandits." It is ultimately a guess, but I figure it is a pretty close guess. If you're the kind of person to cut off someone's arm for a precious item and kill them if they don't let you cut off said arm, then you're probably the kind to steal bounties from others. A part of me wants to kill them for trying this shit, but I am pretty sure the caravan will send others if they don't hear anything from three magic users and a soldier that works directly for a noble. If I can't get their cores, I'll take all that jewelry… That's dragon me talking but I don't even care anymore, since it seems Edith is on the same wavelength the second she realizes they were likely going to kill her either way.

"I wouldn't get up if I were you. You know what happened to the last people that decided to try and hurt me because I look like easy prey." Things get tense, the idea that they might be killed after disarming themselves likely floating in their heads for a bit, before being dispelled by Edith's following words. "You are lucky you aren't as vile as them, I will take everything but the clothes on your back as payment."

The blonde man curses but obeys, throwing down a pouch. Roland looks annoyed but does the same, right up until Edith snaps her fingers his way, putting a bit of sass in her voice. "I meant it. Everything other than the clothes. Drop the jewelry." Now this gets them heated.

"You filthy whore… I'll cut off-" The woman starts, wind dancing just a bit at her finger tips before vanishing as she is hit by my screech. I actually hit her eardrum… when I wanted to only hit her head… In my defense, she moved. Regardless, she screams bloody murder as she holds her head, a bit of blood dripping out from her ear. I catch myself yawning, feeling the exhaustion of all the mana use, but thankfully their attention is firmly on Edith and the downed girl who apparently passed out from the pain.

"As I said. Everything. You get to live after attempting to kill for some coin, I think this is a reasonable price, all in all. I can still kill you if you'd rather have that. I won't be too broken up about having more ashes on my hands." Oh she's good. They end up taking everything off and with her agreement, they waddle away into the forest, the two mages carrying the passed out woman while the blonde man just mumbles curses.

Something rubs the back of my mind and despite how tired I feel, I run after them, keeping a decent distance while watching their every move. Some ten minutes later, my worries prove to be on the money as they meet with another man.

"Take what you can, burn the rest, we need to go. The damn witch had friends hiding in the woods the entire time. No wonder she wasn't afraid…" Ah, wind guy, you're giving me a lot of reasons to burst your brain right now…

"Sirs, please, don't antagonize them any further. You saw what they were capable of, what if they find this and they follow the caravan, killing people from the safety of who knows how far away they were. I'm lucky they didn't make me strip the armor, His Lordship will be very angry when he hears about the fact that I had to give up my sword. And you may be nobles by technicality, but I doubt he will care you are third and fourth sons of knights. He might even punish your families for tainting his name by proxy…"

Sour looks are shared, but the brother seems determined on doing this anyways. I don't have a lot in me, but one more rock throw should be fine. I focus on the rock, open up all my eyes to have as good a vision as I can get, line it up with the back of his head and launch… just as he turns around to shout at one of his companions for trying to stop him. The rock flies true for the first time today and it buries into his right eye. Whoops. That sends them all in a panic, but I am a camouflaged lizard climbed up on a tree inside a dense forest. Ain't nobody looking my way. They get on their horses, leaving one behind which was likely the ride of the wind siblings.

Well shit, I think I just guaranteed they'll hold a grudge. I'd say that I should have killed them, but I'm way too trigger happy considering how I was as a human… Speaking of human, I got an Edith to check up on and that's a bit more important than my fifth identity crisis of the day.