The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

“Did you hear that?” Shae’ra asked as she turned her head slightly to see if she could hear better.

“Did you hear something, miss?” Pryte asked, looking at her with a blank, though polite, expression.

“Sorry, Pryte. I just thought I heard something, that’s all,” she said, patting Pryte on the shoulder as she turned back to what she was doing, which was showing the younglings how to properly mix compost.

* * *

“I definitely heard something weird,” Arise said as she quickly backed away from the edge of the water level.

“Hmmm, I think I heard something too,” Qyress said, nodding as Fyrellia just shrugged.

“We should check it out,” Arise said, pulling her line up from the water as she stood up.

“You just want to leave because you’re not winning,” Fyrellia said with a pout as she pointed at their catch pails.

“No, I seriously heard-,” she cut off as the roar came again, this time louder than before.

The three of them exchanged looks before they made as mad dash for the stairwell. As they got there, they dropped their fishing poles before starting their way up. Arise, the only one walking at this point, silently cursed not having wings as her two friends started flying up the well-hole.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed [Dash] and [Running] as much as she could to keep up, even going so far as to activate [Phantom Step], a Class Ability that allowed her to lighten herself, turn slightly ethereal, as well as [Teleport] short distances. It didn’t last long, but she thought that it would be enough to at least get up to the surface again.

Then when she arrived at the gatehouse, she wished that she hadn’t rushed as fast as she could to get there.

Before her was the top of the food chain. The pinnacle of aerial or terrestrial predators. One of the Elder Dragons.

She looked up at it and wondered just what in the nine hells was going on to have an Elder Dragon, in all its red-black scaled glory… laying like a repentant puppy in front of Joram.

As she stood there, stupefied at the scene unfolding before her eyes, she tried to take in as much as she could.

Joram, looking as though his clothing had gone through a [Sword Barrier], stood in front of the Elder Dragon’s snout… lecturing it. She saw that the top of its head had several damaged scales, adding yet more surrealism to the moment, for an Elder Dragon’s scales were considered an SS-Grade crafting material because they were practically indestructible!!

As Joram continued to verbally berate the Elder Dragon, she spied Avi standing off to the side, using [Telekinesis] to pick up some small objects from the ground. She didn’t know what was so important as to justify ignoring an Elder Dragon, but it must have been a task of [Legendary] importance.

“What’s… going on…?” Qyress asked, sounding as uncertain as she felt as she alternated between holstering her handgun and drawing it again, bringing it to the ready before once more holstering it.

“I-,” she cut off as the Elder Dragon suddenly… shimmered like the mirage of water in the desert at noon.

Then, to her astonishment, the Elder Dragon was gone, leaving behind a… woman? Yes, a woman, for she couldn’t mistake breasts that large, even with how far away she was from the woman. When she noticed the tail and wings, she nodded. Of course, she would choose to [Polymorph] into a dragonkin.

As she watched, Joram walked around her before creating- for he’d explained to her that it wasn’t a [Summon]- some clothing for the Elder Dragon as he politely turned away from her.

“I think we’ll need to get closer to investigate this properly,” Fyrellia said, eyeing the new redhead as she started forward.

Just in the name of the [Demon Lord] happened?!

* * *

M2: [Fission]

Joram 1: [SchismA], [Mindbolt: Long-range]

Joram 2: [SchismA], [Mindbolt: Long-range]

M3a, M3b: [Force ScreenA]

M4a, M4b: [Energy Immunity: Fire]

M5a, M5b: [BiofeedbackA]

M6a, M6b: [Inertial ArmourA]

M7a, M7b: [Barred Mind]

M8a, M8b: [Mind ThrustA]

Both Jorams watched as the crazy-huge dragon roared in pain as the augmented [Mind Thrust]s hit it, bringing its head a bit lower than the twenty-five or so metre height that it was at previously. Which gave him a better chance to jump up there.

Now, he might be going a bit overboard. That could have been the case. And indeed, he normally didn’t do something quite as reckless as jumping up onto a dragon’s head. Nor would he normally start punching it as his other Minds went to town with his other Skills. Namely, [Telekinesis], [Cryokinesis], and [Terrakinesis].

No, he wouldn’t normally have done that. But at the moment, he was right mad. Pissed-off, even. So, Joram 1 watched as Joram 2 continued pounding on the dragon’s head with his fists while his minds went to town with his Skills.

For his part, Joram 1 helped with [Telekinesis], smacking away a wing, then a massive claw that dwarfed him. Then, when the dragon grew angry enough, he used [Pyrokinesis] to redirect the insane breath weapon straight down. He didn’t want the forest to go up in fire and smoke, let alone so close to his house and the kids.

Once he caught his metaphorical breath, the ridiculously massive dragon was sprawled out on the ground in front of him and Joram 2 had been re-assimilated after a bit of healing. Looking down, er, over at the dragon, he almost felt a bit bad.

The scales on its head were cracked and bleeding. Blood also dripped from its ears, making the ground steam as each drop landed on it. Well, he said “ears”, but they were really just ear-holes. He looked the dragon in the eye, for he could only see one at a time due to its massive head, and silently wondered what he’d do with it.

“I haven’t had dragon in a while,” Avi mused from his side, startling him out of his thoughts.

“You want to try eating it?” he asked, a bit stunned as he turned to face her.

“Well, I’m not sure how they’d taste here, but it’s worth a shot,” Avi said.

He was about to say how that would feel more than a little bit weird considering that it was another sapient being, but stopped when motion from the dragon caught his attention.

What he saw stunned him more than a little bit. The dragon was, for lack of a better word, shrinking. It wasn’t a slow process at all, for in a matter of seconds, the dragon that was at least a hundred metres long shrank down to the size of a person. And also the shape of a person.

The naked woman that now sat in front of him could best be described as a dragon-kin. Not the cool half-dragons you could play in video games, with scales and horns, and all the majesty and all that. No, she was very much one of those anime-style dragon-kin.

Her long black hair was incredibly glossy and full, ending in ember-red tips. She had two black and red ridged horns that came out of the side of her head, closer to her temples, that were a good thirty centimetres long and reminded him a bit of an impala’s horns, or maybe an ibex. The red was in the grooves, reminding him of how you could see coals still burning red inside of a black burnt log. Either way, they were intimidating.

She didn’t have a single scale on her heart-shaped face, though. The scales were limited to her wings and tail. Well, he said that, but she had a few very fine scales at the base of her wings and tail that spread out slightly. Well, now that he looked closer, the backs of her fingers had very fine scales as well that extended up her fingers from her formidable-looking nails. Perhaps claws would be a better description of them.

Her tail and wings were also finely scaled, almost looking like snake-skin, but glossier. In fact, they looked so smooth that he had the urge to go and touch them. An urge that he quickly stomped down upon.

Anyways, those scales kept the same pattern as her hair, mostly black, but with a deep ember red at their tips. Her wings were, of course, draconic in appearance, and very much looked like they could support her if she chose to fly off somewhere.

The rest of her skin was, well, just skin. If he were back on Earth, he’d have said that she was Mediterranean, or perhaps middle-eastern. Here? He couldn’t say. Looking more, and feeling very conscious that Avi was at his side now, he could see that the once-dragon also had very fine scales on her elbows and knees, though they were just a tad darker than her skin-tone.

He also tried very hard not to look at her breasts, but they were very prominent, especially when kneeling how she was. With that sight still in mind, he also noted the rest of her body, just giving up at that point.

Aside from the hair on her head, she was bald everywhere else. He wasn’t sure if that had to do with being a dragon, but it was… interesting to note. He couldn’t see her feet from where he was standing, so he made his way around her to get a better look.

Well, the soles of her feet looked to have the same kind of fine scales as she had on her elbows and knees. Another… patch of scales was found between her shoulder blades that extended down her spine, narrowing all the way until just a thin patch met with her tail where the scales once again darkened and grew slightly larger, though no less smooth-looking.

Once he was back where he’d started, he quickly created some clothing for her, styled like those he’d made for both Fyrellia and Qyress to accommodate her wings, though he had to make the tail slot considerably wider for the dragon-lady.

“Here, put these on,” he said, passing her the clothing before turning around and shutting of his [Touchsight] for a bit.

‘Bit late for modesty, no?’ Avi asked, mirth heavy in her sending.

‘Well, I can’t argue with that. But, I think it’s best not to stare.’

‘Now you say that? I thought that you’d ravish her for a bit there, given how red your face had gotten,’ Avi sent teasingly.

‘If I’m not doing that with anyone else, why would I start with her?’ he sent back, now slightly annoyed with the teasing.

‘Oh, don’t be like that,’ Avi said, now sounding both annoyed and amused at the same time. ‘It’s perfectly normal to have those kinds of relationships. Stop limiting yourself.’

“Ahem.”

Joram turned around to see that the three gals were now standing next to the now clothed dragon-lady, looking more than a little bit nervous.

“What’s up?” he asked, raising a single eyebrow at the three of them.

“We, ah, couldn’t help but notice the commotion and all that,” Fyrellia said as she actually fidgeted nervously.

“Ah, that,” he said, now looking back at the dragon-lady. “What’s your name?”

The dragon lady finally looked up at him for the first time since she’d transformed into her current state. He found that her eyes were also that same ember-red and that they also seemed to almost glow in the shade of the forest. He was briefly taken by her long black eyelashes as she stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment before she finally spoke.

“I am Ina’Vaxchisa’Erys, Elder Dragon,” she said meekly, then bowed from the waist, her open hands on her knees as her hair cascaded down in front of her face.

He idly turned on his [Touchsight] again as he looked at the seemingly contrite dragon-lady, wondering where the fierceness had gone. The three gals looked taken aback by what they were seeing, though Avi just seemed to take it all in stride.

“That’s a bit of a mouthful,” he said, thinking about the name and how some of it sounded like something from back on Earth. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just call you Erys for short,” he said, reflecting that she was indeed war-like in how they’d met and how she’d acted. Strife, indeed.

“Thank you,” the dragon-lady, Erys, said while still bowed at ninety-degrees at the waist.

“Please stand up,” he said, finding the prolonged bow a bit annoying. “We have a lot to talk about, and it’ll get old speaking to the back of your head,” he said, then created another platform, a table, and some chairs for them all before directing everyone to take a seat.

The next several minutes went by relatively smoothly, especially now that Erys wasn’t trying to kill him. Erys, it seemed, roamed the world to hunt down dimensional instabilities that would threaten the boundary between their world and the connecting worlds. A [Dimensional Guardian], she claimed. And after a quick use of [Analyze], he found that the inflection people used when speaking about Paths and Skills was warranted.

In all honesty, it was quite impressive. Having such a responsibility was… impressive, for lack of a better word. Looking at her again, she didn’t look much above twenty years of age. Yes, she’d polymorphed into a humanoid form, but those forms usually reflected the equivalent age of their species. Which meant that Erys was, for all intents and purposes, a young woman… even if she claimed to be over a thousand years old….

“So, are dragons immortals?” he asked, now fairly curious about them.

“Well, Elder Dragons are, anyways,” Erys said, bowing slightly to him as she spoke. “Other lesser races of dragons are not.”

“Oh,” he eloquently said, not quite knowing what else to say to that.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Erys said, now looking up at him almost… shyly. “You look human, but don’t smell like a human… or anything else I’ve come across…” she said, trailing off at the end as she- astonishingly!- blushed and lowered her eyes again.

“Ah, well, I’m what’s called a High Elan,” he said, once more at a loss for what to say, though this time because of how Erys was acting….

… and how ridiculous cute she was….

‘Down boy,’ Avi silently teased, sounding more entertained than chastising.

‘I’m still a man!!!’ he sent furiously as he activated [Clear Mind] and made sure that [Barred Mind] was still up and running.

“What is that?” Erys asked as she peeked up at him from under her brows as the glow in her eyes seemed to intensify.

Joram noticed that the three gals were also studiously paying attention in their own ways. From Arise pretending to be studying one of the black Moss Stone rings that he’d been experimenting with. Fyrellia’s eyes were glued to him almost as intensely as Qyress’ were, though the former seemed to practically burn with curiosity while the former seemed more… intense.

“How to explain…?” he said, wondering how exactly to paraphrase Altaea and everything else that led to him becoming a High Elan. “I guess you could call me… god-changed? It’s a… result of being pulled over to your world, you see,” he finished, leaving it at that.

Erys’ head rose until she was able to directly stare at him as her jaw slowly dropped in shock. Arise dropped the ring she was playing with, Fyrellia’s eyes were nearly popping out, while Qyress’ eyes had taken on an uncomfortably worshipful glow as she clutched her hands to her bosom, wings quivering slightly.

His attention was drawn back to Erys as she slowly rose, adjusting the yukata as she stood. She then made her way around the small table as her wings folded across the front of her shoulders, the claws at the mid-joints of each wing clasping each other to make it look as though she were wearing a cloak. As she came closer, he scooted his chair back and to the side so that it didn’t feel weird as she stopped beside him. She then knelt, placing her hands on his knees as she once again bowed her head, causing her long hair to cascade down between her extended arms.

“Divine One,” she began, blowing his mind already. “I once more apologize for the sin of attacking you. Please punish me,” she finished, sounding deadly serious.

Through [Touchsight], he could see that the others were just as poleaxed as he was. He could feel how steady her resolve was both through how level her voice was and how steady her hands were on his knees. He idly noted how warm her hands felt on his knees and wondered what he was going to do.

‘I’ve got nothing,’ Avi sent as she minutely shook her head.

A myriad of thoughts flew through his head as he considered the situation that he was in. Anything from just going along with it to denying any sort of Divine role. Many thoughts revolved around the various tropes surrounding someone kneeling in front of a protagonist like that, from casually dismissing the situation all the way to exploiting it in every way possible.

But that just wasn’t him.

“I’m not some deity,” he said, shaking his head slightly as he placed his hands on her. “I appreciate the apology, though. So, please, stand up,” he said as he gently clasped her hands in his and carefully pulled her up with him as he stood. Careful, because of her horns that were pointed at his groin.

Erys tilted her head back to avoid impaling him, once more showing her ember-red eyes as she gazed at him with an unreadable expression. She stared so long, in fact, that he was starting to get uncomfortable as he also realized that she hadn’t let go of his hands yet.

Slowly, her wings unfurled far enough to allow her to step in close and then wrap around him as she let go of his hands so that she could wrap her arms around his torso. He realized, then, that she was actually about ten or so centimetres shorter than him as he looked into her eyes and wondered just what was going to happen.

Then, as she pulled herself more firmly against him, she spoke, and blew his mind.