Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 15

It was not, in fact, years later when Alex and Kate stepped back into the Dungeon chamber where the rest of the team had been waiting for them. It wasn’t even a year, or a month. They came back after a single day.

Holly had been the first to rush to Alex’s side, checking him over as if she were a nurse and he had wandered into an emergency room. She lifted his arms, turned him around and even looked into his eyes carefully for a moment before she finally accepted that he wasn’t hurt and sighed.

“What the hell took so long?” she asked.

“Well, it's a bit hard to explain,” Alex said.

“You were gone for a whole damn day, Alex. Start explaining,” Holly insisted.

Kate stepped forward at that point, raising her hand in a placating motion. “We are fine, Holly, really. We found the thing at the bottom of the dungeon. As it turns out, it was a Hydra.”

“Hydra?!” Devon and Garret shouted along with Holly.

The explanation around their time with Amnios ended up being shorter than Alex had anticipated. He and Kate went over Amnios, the lore they had learned, and briefly described their training.

“So you can breathe dragon-fire now? Dude, Tom-Tom is gonna be stoked. Hell, I’m stoked.” Garret said.

Alex scratched his neck and frowned. “Uh, no. Apparently, I’m way off from that. I barely even managed to poke my Wyrm-Heart awake once during that whole day.”

Which was true. The idea of producing dragon-fire was amazing, but Amnios promptly curbed his enthusiasm by reminding him he apparently can’t even utilize draconic energy, let alone even activate his Wyrm-Heart on his own.

Trying to get his Wyrm-Heart to activate was the first lesson for him. It was tough, as it wasn’t like a spell or a skill, in that there was no aether pattern he could learn and no spell chant he could rely on. Amnios could only attempt to guide him through the feelings and the instinctual connection to the heart instead.

Alex spent almost the entire day trying to tap into the feeling he had whenever it had been activated before, only learning just how hard it was to do. He had nudged the heart, just barely, getting it to beat irregularly and release a bare wisp of energy at his command. And that was it.

Amnios had insisted both of them needed to stay much longer to learn how to properly use their constitutions, but they just didn’t have that time, for multiple reasons. Since the Hydra leaving the dungeon was practically impossible and risky for many reasons besides, it eventually opened the passage back to let them leave.

But not without giving them something else before they passed through

“I cannot join with you physically, and cannot give you all of my knowledge at once without destroying your brains and souls,” the Hydra explained. The packet of info Alex had received and had Obby trying to parse through, was apparently only a tiny bit of what the seven minds of the Hydra contained. “But if I am already dead, and merely a phantom of myself held by the System, there is no reason for me not to give you my soul-orb.”

Before Alex or Kate could ask what they meant, Amnios’ many heads all began to rise, with their eyes all radiating a purple glow, illuminating the entire area with a violet hue. Within seconds, the Hydra’s body began to wither, scales and muscles flaking away, as if turning to dust before their very eyes.

“What the f—“ Alex began, only to be forced to take cover as the beast’s body began unleashing huge amounts of draconic energy.

They both dove behind the rocks of the chamber as the purple energy washed over their heads. A second later, they were met with only silence. Amnios, the gigantic Hydra-beast, was gone.

“They just killed themselves?” Cole asked.

Alex answered by going into his robes and pulling out a softball-sized crystalline gem. Seven small lights sparkled and danced at the center.

[Item: Draconic Soul-orb

Description: The remnant soul-orb to a powerful Adult Hydra. This item contains the final memories and knowledge of the creature before its sacrifice. Can be used as a powerful crafting or alchemy material.]

“An arcane beast core?” Holly frowned. “That’s it.”

“No, not a beast core,” Alex said. “Apparently, Dragon-kin are capable of distilling their souls into a crystalline form of their dragon-fire to preserve their knowledge. It usually done right before death, but its rare, as it means the dragon in question has locked their soul to the material world, and destroying the item means the destruction of their soul itself.”

“How do you know all this?” Garret asked as he reached out for the item.

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Alex pulled it away, keeping it out of the man’s reach. “Amnios told us afterward.”

Garret frowned, “Afterward?”

“Well… his Soul-orb told us,” Kate said.

The item flashed, as if it could hear them talking and confirmed her words.

“Amnios, or their soul and memories at the very least, are inside. Connecting to the item like an aether-slate brings your consciousness into the orb and lets you converse with them,” Alex said.

“Dude! You have a pocket hydra!”

Alex shook his head and tucked the item away into his storage bracelet. It was best to keep the orb hidden for now. “We can talk about it later, for now, let's get out of this Dungeon, spend some points at the Shop and get back to the others.”

“Fine, but you’ll need to do a lot of explaining once we get back,” Holly said.

Alex didn’t argue.

***

The dungeon gate shimmered once and Alex stumbled through, partially blinded by the glare of the teleportation. He felt the cool air of the tunnel draft as he arrived back deep under Athrastas. Compared to the unbearable heat they had endured from the lava flows and the forge both, even the mild breeze he felt was as refreshing as a glass of iced-tea.

“Gods above,” Cole groaned as he arrived through the gate after him. “If I ever see another lump of molten metal again, I’m creating an ocean myself and then tossing it in forever.”

“You’re a water mage,” Holly said dryly. “You can’t just cool yourself down?”

“That takes aether, a lot of it. I should just hire you to fan me like one of those ancient Egyptian princes.”

“Like you could afford me,” Holly snapped back.

Kate stepped out last, but just in time to hear the exchange. “Both of you shut it before I use the last of my aether to ignite both your asses.”

Garret laughed weakly, tossing his pack down beside the stone post outside the gate. “We’re alive. That’s good enough for me. Thought I’d be turned to lava at least six times in there.”

The rest of the squad collapsed around him, their many wounds, and hours of constant fighting finally catching up to them. Even Alex felt the edge of exhaustion eating at him. The Urhara Empire soldier he spoke to before entering the Dungeon approached him before he could sit down, though, so he spent more time answering some questions.

The cluster of Empire artificers stationed around the gate swarmed the portal’s frame, crystal wands in hand. They waved scanning tools through the fading aether currents, their eyes widening as the readings came in.

“Containment stable,” one said. “Residual core energy dropping.”

Another nodded, jotting notes on an aether-slate. “Dungeon cooldown has engaged. There will be no breach risk for at least thirty cycles.”

“Good work, Adepts,” the lead soldier said to Alex and the others, even offering a curt nod before gesturing to the guards. “Escort them to the report post so they can get their reward.”

There were graons as the team stood back and were led to a shaded alcove of the subterranean courtyard, where a small desk had been set up. Behind it sat another Empire official in tailored robes, and an aether quill already hovering above a parchment ledger.

The man took down all their information, pressed it to the surface of his aether-slate, and nodded. “You’ll each deposit your recollection of the events into this slate for record and confirmation. Adept Pierce, you first.”

Alex hesitated. “You want me to… put my memories on that?”

“It’s standard procedure,” the official said, already looking bored. “For merit verification and report synchronization.”

Alex exchanged a glance with Devon, who gave a subtle shrug, and then exhaled slowly. This could be bad.

It was his first time officially completing a dungeon under Empire control, the Dark Dena nd the Chimera Dungeons were officially sanctioned dives, after all. He had assumed they would have to give a report of their dive, perhaps even a written accounting of it, but he hadn’t anticipated this. It woud be very bad for the Empire to have access to some of the information he had.

Obby? he thought silently.

The voice in his mind was cool and amused as the rock responded. “Relax, Alex. You can input your memories on the slate easily, you’ve already learned how to this.”

Its not that I’m worried about. I don’t’ want the Empire knowing too much about my Wyrm-Heart, Amnious and his Soul-Orb, and all the rest of my abilities. And what about you? Alex asked. If I do this, they’ll see—

“They won’t. I’ll scrub the perception field around my existence and modify the rest to obscure things. Some of your thoughts, memories, and feelings will appear as neutral static, common for anyone new to using aether slates. You’ll feel a tug on your mind as you do this, just know it’s me filtering. Don’t fight it.”

Alex swallowed, then placed his palm on the slate. He felt the familiar pull of the slate’s enchantment as he connected to it. Lines of text flashed briefly across the surface:

Adept: Alexander Pierce

Dungeon Cleared: The Heart Forge — Status: Successful

Merit: Pending Validation

He quickly imprinted his memories onto the item, and just as Obby said, he felt a pinprick in his mind as he did so. He allowed it, trusting the enchanted rock to do its thing. Once he was done he ahnded the item over.

The clerk scanned it, nodding curtly before inserting it into a bronze box beside him.

Alex forced his face into a neutral smile as the official handed them their clearance notes. “Congratulations, Adepts. The Empire appreciates your contribution. Lady Xhiu will be informed of your success.”

“Thank you, sir,” Kate said smoothly before bowing just enough to be polite.

Alex followed suit, keeping his eyes down just long enough to hide the spark of anger building in his chest around the idea the Empire still thought of them as pawns to Lady Xhiu’s noble house.

When they left the post, Garret stretched his arms with a tired groan. “Man, that was rough, but worth it, right? I mean, we got loot, XP, and no one died. Can’t beat that.”

“Yeah,” Alex said distantly, his eyes were still on the glowing aether box across the courtyard. “Can’t beat that.”

But inside, his mind was turning over possibilities for what he had to go over and do when they got back. He had to add Amnois and his lessons to the long list of thing he had to work on, and he’d have to trade-off time with Kate in that regard as well.

He was excited to get started. He had a lot of experience points to still spend, and he was certain he was going to get a chance at the lightning of the Heavenly Tribulation on his next stat increase.

“Alexander Pierce?” A voice suddenly called out to him.

Alex turned at the mention of his name, finding a young man standing in front of him. The man was rather plain, even if Alex could see he was a brand new Adept, just on the first steps through the early Gaseous stage. But Alex still froze as he looked at him.

The man had the sigil of the Aerlith Kingdom emblazoned on a small scroll that he held up in both hands.