Chapter 386: Dragon Strategy 2
But that was thinking way too far ahead. For now, Aldrich just needed to make sure his plans worked.
"Ah, so there are dragons in those quests of yours. I must remind you that I am not intimately aware of every little detail in those quests," said Medula. She clasped her hands together, forming a platform to rest her chin. "Only that they ended with you defeating us and leading the Lifelight here."
"How do you feel about that anyway? That I caused the end of everything here before?"
Medula shrugged casually. "Nothing much. It is like a faraway dream now. Any emotions I felt during that time are muted. And, even if they were not, I personally do not believe I would hold any grudge. We lost. That is that and only that."
"Surprisingly n.o.ble in defeat," said Valera. "I would have thought you far more vindictive than that."
"No point in harboring grudges. All that is is just a waste of mental energy, and there is very little in the form of grudges worth investing that much mental energy into." She tapped the side of her temple. "Well then, Usurper, I have heard your plan, and it should work.
Dragons are all vested with an innate ability to cross dimensional barriers. Much like demons, in fact. However, considering the lack of dragons in general, I suspect you are dealing with dragonkin.
Wyrms. Wyverns. Degenerated specimen."
"Correct."
"Their Dimensional Breaching capacity is weaker, then. They will not be able to breach the dimensional barrier between the Trial Quest and my prison realm. But the Dragonsong will temporarily amplify their breaching enough to escape the boundaries of the Trial Quest.
At that point, I can easily redirect them into the prison realm by briefly connecting the two, though it will be quite taxing on my magical energy. I will also require a precise notice of when this is happening and-,"
"No."
"No?" Medula paused, staring at Aldrich.
"I changed my mind. Activating the Dragonsong in the prison realm was my first plan, but there"s the inherent flaw that insane dragons don"t make good troops. I can lead them to my enemies, and if they"re aggroed by other forces, they will respond, but this has some inherent unreliability to it.
I have a better way to do things. The good old fas.h.i.+oned necromancer"s way.
I"ll call them here, in the Necropolis itself, where they"ll be killed. Afterwards, I raise them.
That way, I"ll have a more reliable force to work with."
Medula raised an accusing brow. "YOU are going to be killing them, yes? After all, they are your responsibility." She stared at Aldrich, and he stared back at her in silence. She put a hand to her head in defeat. "No, why am I even asking such a question at this point. You are simply going to dump them here for us to deal with, no? That is exactly what you are going to do, hm?"
"You DO have top notch defenses," said Aldrich. "They made short work of my "party" the last time I sent one here. I was so impressed that I"d like to request a repeat service."
Medula rubbed her forehead, annoyed. "Essentially what you are saying is that you will bring an entire flight of dragonkin to damage this realm."
"That is precisely what I"m saying."
"Your sheer audacity astounds me sometimes." Medula sighed. "Do you consider us a cleanup crew standing by at your convenience?
You are aware that I am in control of the Necropolis right now, no? I have far less control than Mel, but it is still enough. What if I refuse to activate this tower"s defenses? What if I choose to seal the dragonkin in your throne room? What if I make them your problem?"
"Correct me if I"m wrong, but weren"t you the one to talk about how dragons have Dimensional Breaching?" said Aldrich. "With the Dragonsong"s madness buff, I bet the dragonkin can bypa.s.s any seal you put up pretty d.a.m.n easily."
This did make Aldrich wonder if there were dragons out there, in the vastness of the cosmos. Demons and dragons were similar in that they could both travel through realms, and Aldrich had already encountered an "alien" demon in the form of Ikon.
What stopped there being "alien" dragons? Or even the original Archdragons of the Dragonflight? Elden World never said where exactly the original dragons went, just that they left and never really looked back.
But maybe it was possible to encounter them again.
However, that possibility made it so that Aldrich would always have second or third thoughts before blowing the horn in the Alter realm. The Necropolis and prison realms were isolated, contained dimensions, but the Alter reality was ma.s.sive.
The chance that the horn could draw some unwanted, powerful, maddened alien dragon seemed low, but it was not one Aldrich wanted to entertain.
Plus there was no real use for it out in the Alter world. There were no dragons, after all. None he knew of, anyway.
Aldrich briefly entertained the idea of whether the Dragonsong worked on Fafnir, the mercenary that could turn into a dragon. It made intuitive sense, but mechanically, it made no sense for it to work that way.
Fafnir was not a real dragon. He was just an Alterhuman who could mutate into something that looked like a dragon, but there was nothing magical about that transformation. In fact, it was more accurate to say he morphed into a giant serpent more than any typical fantasy looking dragon.
Yes, the fire breathing was there, but it was based on Ether powered combustion, not mana based magic.
"Fine. Fine. Mel did tell me to be patient with you." Medula leaned her head back, closing her eyes. "Yes, she told me to be patient. Yes, yes."
"Look, I wouldn"t be doing this if I thought it would be a serious threat to the Necropolis," said Aldrich. "My initial plan WAS to use the Dragonsong in your prison realm and have you direct the dragonkin there, but things are just too convenient right now for me not to pa.s.s this opportunity up."
"Convenient?" Medula opened an eye, staring at Aldrich. "How?"
"You said the Death Lord took Rella"s spot, didn"t you?" Aldrich saw both Medula and Valera"s eyes widen in recognition of where he was going with this. "That means Rella"s free.
Last time I saw her, she was itching for a fight. Among other things. But mostly a fight. She"s through and through the definition of a battle maniac.
Tell her I"m going to be bringing the fight to her."