The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons

Kim Hajun wished he could see more than just the green sky with the lighter-green clouds. Unfortunately, his head was stuck facing the sky thanks to the sucker tentacles wrapped around his body. The Wisty must’ve been really interested in him if it wasn’t willing to let him move even a single inch.

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Lindyss asked, her voice drifting into Kim Hajun’s ear from behind. The cursed elf was sitting on top of Vur’s head, his scaly body sitting on its haunches. He was peering over the edge of the Wisty’s massive tentacle, looking down at the scene below.

“Uh-huh,” Vur said without taking his gaze away from the ground.

“I’ve never seen it this close in person before,” Lindyss said.

Kim Hajun swore the cursed elf was messing with him. He wanted to see the interesting thing as well! What if it contained a precious piece of knowledge capable of saving the world? Who knew when another person with time magic would send him back to the past again to prevent a terrible future from occurring? It was a shame he couldn’t even voice his concerns; at best, he could let out a few muffled grunts that Vur and Lindyss ignored.

“Are the things down there tasty?” Vur asked.

“I’ve never tried eating one,” Lindyss said. “Some of those things used to be people.”

Vur blinked. “What happened to them?”

“They died,” Lindyss said, nodding her head. “Eventually, their souls found their way to this place. They wait in the river for their turn to reincarnate.”

Kim Hajun wriggled, causing the tentacles holding him to wrap around his limbs even tighter. Lots of religions back on Earth told stories about rivers located in the underworld. Which river was he flying over right now? He could always ask Vur and Lindyss about the river afterwards, but personally seeing something was much better than hearing about it. Actually, now that he thought about it, would he be able to ask any questions when the Wisty was through with him? From what he had heard, he knew the Wisty ate memories; what if he forgot about the river? What if he forgot who he was?

“You said some of them used to be people,” Vur said. “What about the ones that weren’t people?”

“Plants and animals,” Lindyss said and pointed. “You see the smaller ones? Those are usually plants or non-magical beasts. The size and shape of a soul usually doesn’t correspond to a creature’s physical appearance, but the amount of mana one had does play a role in their soul’s appearance.”

Vur tilted his head. Despite the incline, Lindyss remained unmoved as she sat on his scales. “What’s that one?” Vur asked, pointing down below.

“The mountain-sized one?” Lindyss asked, raising an eyebrow. “Probably a dragon or phoenix.”

Vur grunted before turning his head to the side, getting a better look at the view below.

“Does this place interest you?” Lindyss asked. “If you want, you can ask the lich to teach you some spells related to souls.”

“Can’t he just ask you?” Stella asked from inside Vur’s body, unwilling to come out thanks to—as she had put it—the terrible weather conditions. “You’re a master at soul stuff.”

“How about it, Vur?” Lindyss asked, smiling as she looked down. “Want me to teach you magic again?”

Vur blinked and thought back to the time he was little. Images of fireballs, icicles, gusts of sharp wind, enough water to drown him, and bolts of lightning filled his mind. After carefully reflecting, Vur shook his head. “No,” he said before looking back down at the ground. “I’m hungry.”

“Even after eating all those roasted bugs?” Lindyss asked. “They were ridiculously large, and you ate a lot of them.”

Vur nodded. “I can eat more.”

“I see,” Lindyss said. “It’s understandable since you have part of the Soul Devourer inside of you.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the souls making up the landscape down below. “They do look delicious, don’t they? Like pieces of grass jelly.”

“Now you’re just tempting him,” Stella said. “These are potential unborn people, Vur.”

“Potential unborn bears too,” Lindyss said before Vur could reply.

“You can’t eat strange souls just because they might be bears,” Stella said. “If they’re special, they can wind up inside you, and I’m running out of dungeon space to lock unruly fellows in.”

“If you don’t act now, you might not have a chance until way later,” Lindyss said and looked up at the sky. There was a fine red mist in the direction the Wisty’s tentacle was heading. “We’re about to transition again.”

Vur squinted at the ground once more before looking away while exhaling through his nostrils. If it was possible to see what the soul would turn into after reincarnating, he wouldn’t mind eating a few bear souls, but it wasn’t; the souls were green blobs with varying levels of definition detailing their bodies.

“Whoa! What’s this?” Erin’s voice floated out of Vur’s body near his forearm.

“Hey!” Stella said. “You can look, but no touching!”

Thanks to the aforementioned terrible weather, Erin had sought shelter inside of Vur’s body. Lindyss’ hair might’ve been comfortable, but it wasn’t good enough at keeping the chill out. The cursed elf glanced at Kim Hajun, making sure her bait was still alive. Although there were traces of white frost on the tips of Kim Hajun’s eyelashes and eyebrows, he looked perfectly healthy. Lindyss nodded. The well-dressed man wasn’t protesting either, so everything must’ve been fine and dandy for him.