Ascent of a Dragon

Through the eyes of a groaning spider

"Icy what you did there." "Please stop..." "Snow way!" "Stop! They're not even that good!" "..." "..." "Chilljoy..." I regret teaching her language... The trio find themselves traversing icy plains, coated in a thin layer of snow. The ceiling is littered with large icicles, many dangling precariously from their hold. The pillars and walls are frozen behind a thick shell of ice, leaving small gaps between caverns.

"This doesn't make sense... There should be more wind!" "Maybe it's no longer the windy season?" "I spent a long time trying to get through this layer. The whole time it was peppered by heavy winds like the storm layer." "Zzah woorruldh isz llarrgh." "Hmm... I suppose you do have a point. I guess we could just be really far from the centre. Good thing we stocked extra food." A shrill shriek echoes across the icy walls, drawing their attention. "Locals?" "Not sure. There weren't any when I was here. Let's just ignore it." "Okay!" I'm sure it won't be a problem.

Continuing on they wind their way through a glacial tunnel, light from Lyla reflecting and refracting around them into a dazzling spectrum. The crevasse widens as they traverse, opening up into a wide cavern stretching as far as the eye can see. Gliding around a pillar in the centre are dozens of large birds, shaped like three stacked crescent moons. Shrill caws and shrieks fill the cavern, echoing off the walls in an almost disorienting dissonance. The birds circle each other, their paths overlapping in a chaotically patterned dance.

"Maybe they'll just ignore us?" "I don't know... A lot of the stuff in these caves tend to be territorial. And look..." Littered across the base and tip of the pillar are a series of tunnels and holes burrowing deep into the ice. "I'll bet that's our way down. Not sure why, but a lot of creatures make their home by these tunnels between layers." "More territory? Migration? Escape from predators?" Okay, how did I not think of any of those? They seem so obvious now. "Maybe they just came here to attend a snow ball?" I really hope this is just a phase or something...

With cautious steps they proceed towards the pillar, traversing the rugged terrain littered with shattered ice and snow. As they reach the halfway point, the birds shift their motions. Continuing to circle and spiral each other, they slowly make their way to the trio, maintaining their height just below the ceiling. "I guess it was too much to hope for them to ignore us..." "We are walking straight towards what is probably their nest. I'd be more surprised if they didn't." "Maybe they're friendly?" "We should really stop asking that..."

Through the eyes of an unpleasantly surprised dragon

"Run!" Crash! Shatter! Icicles fall from above, practically exploding as they smash into the ground. Birds continue to circle above, slicing through waves of icicles with their wings as they one-sidedly attack the intruders. Aleph and Goldy dodge and weave through the incoming projectiles, bee-lining for the centre where more await. Ice shatters, claws scrape, feet plunge into the ground, and shrieks reverberate through the cavern. Several birds line up ahead, flying straight towards the trio and unleashing a tidal wave of icicles, careening to the floor and forming a wall of exploding ice. Okay, focus... breathe... and- Hey!

Aleph's sprint is halted by the golden hand grasping her tail, pulling her to a stop. Muscles flex and palms plunge into the ice, pulling up a dome around the trio. Oh... That works too. The dome is shattered as the wave of icicles meet their target, leaving behind a harmless snowy powder and small fragments of ice to land on the trio. "Ha! Can't get us now that you're out of- oh I should really stop tempting fate like that..." You really should... The birds swoop down in swarms, charging directly towards the trio. "Careful! If they get close they'll give you a frostbite!" "Wait, reall- Was that a pun?! Seriously? Right now?!"

Goldy scoops his palm into the ground, hurling a ball of ice towards an oncoming bird, only for it to phase straight through. This must be one of those type match-up things! Ice doesn't affect ice, so what's super-effective? Fighting! Tail whip! Aleph jumps, performing a pretty decent forward flip and using the momentum to swipe at a bird. Swish! The bird phases through, undamaged and leaving her scales untouched, but slicing through her insides in the process. Ah, shit. That was normal type wasn't it... Whichever life I learned this stuff in I clearly didn't pay enough attention...

More birds swoop in, slicing through Aleph's defences, leaving her only able to avoid fatal injury as she leaps away from their attacks. Goldy manages to make good use of his superior agility to deftly dodge each attack, only receiving a few nicks as he coats his fist in flame, preparing a counterattack. One bird manages to swoop in vertically, aiming directly at Lyly on a path to bisect her. Instead of dodging, the critter simply tanks it, letting the bird careen away as it bounces of her. "Fool! You think you can make it past my defence? Fuahahaha!" Seriously... What is she made of? The birds circle around, swooping in for another volley.

Aether surges through Aleph, pulling together the severed muscles and veins, and cloaking her in a cowl of violet. Aura flares as even the ground begins to turn violet, the flame building in Goldy's hand petering out as Aether instils its dominance. Well as they say, when hitting it doesn't work... Aleph raises her paw, draped in dancing orbs of violet, and slams down. Catching one of the large birds mid swoop, all Mana cloaking the avian is mercilessly torn away, leaving its head to be crushed under the weight of an Aether-enhanced dragon. Crack! The squelch of the bird's former head goes unheard under the shock-wave emanating from the fractured ground.

The remaining birds abort their attack, swooping to the side before circling the trio. Did that scare them away? Aleph peers down at the mostly in-tact bird before her. Would be a waste to just... "Leave it. They're not done with us yet." "But-" "Leave it!" Such a waste... Aleph leaps over the corpse, continuing where her charge left off as the swarm begins to swoop in from behind. "Goldy! Hop on!" "Yesh!" Picking up the pace as Goldy clings to her back she barrels towards the pillar, aiming for the largest looking tunnel she can see. "What's your plan for slowing down?" "My what?" Crash!

Her legs are nearly submerged in ice as she slams into the wall, immediately throwing herself down to dodge the incoming swipe. The bird phases through the wall, turning and coming out to the side, a bit wobbly for its troubles. As the remaining birds swoop into the tunnel to chase after them Goldy grasps the wall, ice shattering and re-hardening to close the route behind them. A few birds plunge into the wall eventually either turning around or slowing to a halt within the wall. The unfortunate birds unable to escape the walls leave behind a resounding crack as they re-materialise, merging with the ice in a very non-PG display.

"I no longer want that ability..." "I mean... You can just use a safer version of it. Mana is pretty adaptable like that." "Huu, yesh. Whall whallkh ish ferry yuuzfuul." "We really need to work on your consonants..." "I think he's doing great!" "Huhuhu." "So why'd we stop." "Dead end." "Ah..." The tunnel ends abruptly, nothing but a small room with ribbon-like feathers coating the ground. "Who decided the biggest tunnel wasn't the right one? It's always the right one!" "The birds probably." "Ugh I don't wanna go back up there." "No need to. I'll look for another way." Aether flares, pressing into the ice and mapping out the surrounding network of tunnels.

"Goldy, can you dig this way?" Placing a palm on the aforementioned wall, Goldy sinks it in, pulling away at the ice layer by layer. As he pulls away the final layer it opens up into a smaller tunnel, leading straight down until it hits the rock, where it begins to curve away. "I feel like tunnel size is going to be a growing problem..." "I swear, if that was another pun..." "Oh yea! Didn't even notice that one!" "Just jump down the hole already!" With a hop, Aleph... slides down the tunnel, barely small enough to even fit in. Lyly has to skitter under the dragon's neck to avoid being crushed between her skull and the wall as they descend.

Finally reaching the bottom, she claws her way out of the tight ice tunnel and into the not quite as tight stone tunnel. Goldy follows shortly behind and the trio set off, winding their way down the spiralling tunnel to the floor below. "You know... We got pretty lucky. It took me days to find an exit the last time I was here. Maybe we didn't need to stock up food after all!" "We were definitely lucky. None of their attacks damaged the satchels, they just went straight through! The food probably got messed up though..." The tunnel continues to wind for hours, the trio steadily making their way through until it opens up into a sea of white.

"This can't be right..." Lyly hops down, clinging to the pillar leading from the tunnel to the snow-laced ground below. "Where's all the wind? There should be another storm on this layer!" Aleph and Goldy hop down, gliding and sliding to the floor as Lyly skitters around the pillar. The horizon is taken over by the homogeneity of snow and regularly spaced pillars, seeming to curve out of view before reaching the end. A few minutes later she appears from the other side, jumping down to land by the pair. "This looks nothing like what I remember. Even the previous layer was weirdly open, but I figured that was just a difference in location. But this... It's completely different. I don't know which way to go..."

"Maybe we can just check the pillars? They probably have more tunnels going down." "No... I'm pretty sure there's only one way down in the centre of this floor. But everything is the same here, I don't know which way to go. I didn't even know there was space outside the storm!" Aleph raises her head, looking around. "That way." "What? Why?" "Looks nice." "..." "..." "Well, it's hard to refute that logic. That way it is." And so they set off. That way. Flop! Until a wave of numbness and lethargy overcomes the dragon, chaining her to the ground.

Entry 1

I have found a source of ink within this labyrinth which does not rely on Mana, like that which I brought with me all those years ago. I had to use a few pages to test different candidates, but I believe this one, sourced from a small insect common to floor 79, is quite suitable. This way it should not be damaged in the same way as my old ink, though in turn it will likely only last a matter of decades at best. I have used my return token on my other journals, so they should stop their decay. Hopefully someone can repair the damaged parts. There was some true gold in there, especially on the later floors.

Since I am on my last journal, I will be changing the format of my notes. Instead of cataloguing each individual creature I find in what was frankly a much too limiting format to begin with, I will treat this as a diary of sorts. I intend to note down only the most significant events that occur here, though if I can make it past floor 89 I shall certainly begin detailing the nature of each subsequent floor.

For now, I intend to ascend to train. Clearly my constitution is lacking if I cannot even handle the very atmosphere of the lower layers. Perhaps that giant spider would be willing to spar with me?

- Unlabelled Journal