The Power of Ten

Chapter 13-373: Cold-Blooded

“We were unaware of such things, although we saw where the Empire has indeed spread its bloodlines to many other worlds, conquering some, merely infiltrating others.”

“It happened fairly recently, and since you were trapped here, you could not have known.” I pursed my lips thoughtfully as I studied this Portal, setting my hand on it and keying the power inside of it.

Nothing happened, of course. This thing’s only purpose was to form a Portal to another world ruled by dragons, and the Shroud naturally stopped it.

Its presence here also explained the numbers of dragons here. Any of the various rival lineages of the dragons could have keyed into this Portal and sent their younger generations through to the Hollow World. I was actually surprised it was being guarded by the Bloodline of Abyssal Maws...josei

“Is there an arrangement with some other Old Gods here to allow it to persist, or has it basically been forced to shut down by external pressure?”

“There were many forces competing with the dragons very energetically while it was open. Once the Shroud came down and no more dragons could enter through it, the interest of the more aggressive terrestrial forces waned, and those forces in the tiers ceased to pay attention to it. Grobriundlarsh dares not leave the clouds unless he wants them to come here and destroy the Portal, as some of the neighboring Old Gods would react immediately to his existence and the spread of his Bloodline if they knew he was still alive.”

“Well, his Bloodline is not an issue, unless they are wary of you.” There was no true physical change at this point, but I could feel the Charisma effects starting to grow around them as they assimilated the lilitu completely. They were ten days into it, and their Presence had soared.

“They have sensed us, but only as a Warlock Grandmaster. A Bloodline is mostly irrelevant with such status, although we have felt their interest. Would we make any overtures, we are certain they would be willing to speak with us.”

“I saw your Sorcery kicked in.” Hard for someone like me to miss that.

“Yes. Syasstraz was only a base succubus, after all. We have completely assimilated her lineage, and are feeding her Sorcery as we continue up the advancement to a lilitu.” They shook their head in exasperation. “Too many of the spells are directly tied to the Bloodline, and they are coming in without direction or choice.”

“Well, you’ve a dual Bloodline inheritance, exacerbated by you actually advancing succubus Racial Levels. It is probably not that surprising.”

“Nereid/Sirine and Erinyes, as well.” I arched an eyebrow, thought about that, and nodded. It made sense. Just with that arrangement, that meant four of their Spells Known were pre-selected for them by Valence, and they naturally had the same spells Syasstruz had to start with. Their optimized choices were basically null.

“But you actually have higher Valence spells, not stopping at Five?”

“We shall see tomorrow. What do you wish to do with this Portal?” they asked, clearly not placing much value on the fixed magic at this point.

I withdrew my hand from the Portal, and the burning Glyphs on the thing gradually dimmed. “I was verifying dimensional coordinates. I’d like you to break the thing into small pieces, and then I will Disintegrate the lot of them.”

They smiled, canines now considerably more developed then a human’s. Scaled knuckles cracked like gunfire. “Certainly!”

--------

The last remnants of the Portal hissed and fell into powder. The dragons would have no easy path here, and pointedly, didn’t have an easy route out of here if and when the Shroud rose.

I still hadn’t met a noble dragon, and considered it unlikely. They were long-lived, predatory, magical, extremely proud, arrogant, and very intelligent reptilian killing machines with their own agendas, desires, drives, and motivations that certainly didn’t take the welfare of measly intelligent primates into consideration. Their bloody habit of infiltrating and subverting the ecology of wherever they went was basically a one-way road to disaster to any other species living there.

They were going to have to die, because they were too dangerous to everything to keep around. Bloody drak...

That Qi-mutated dragon wasn’t one of the Lineages from the Empire of Cold Blood, of course. Cultivator-dragons were as alien to dragons as Cultivators were to humans. But the presence of dragons also meant the presence of Dragonhearts.

Dragonhearts were kinder, gentler ways to get the half-dragon Template, if you were capable of wrestling with and besting the soul of the dragon you butchered to get it. If you failed, you became a new dragon in humanoid form who had to be put down, so it was not something for the faint of heart to do.

Consuming a half-dragon succubus Pact Grantor was a very non-standard approach to getting the same thing. Having to be Heaven-and-Hellbound to make that work was a rather steep requirement, too.

“You are considering something?” Legion asked, eying the empty spot where the Portal they had wrenched apart was no longer standing, but my eyes were focused elsewhere.

“The amethyst dragon that Bound Professor Shellington. All I know of dragons was basically gained through conversation with celestials or Jotuns. We rarely had anything resembling gainful conversations with the Lineages that invaded Terra-Luna.

“As I recall, the amethyst Lineage is considered noble, wise, aloof, and disinterested in conflict. They are masters of magical and psionic powers, particularly force effects.” I considered a whole bunch of variables. “That does not make them pacifists, that makes them passive aggressive. They are still subject to the compulsion to hoard, and to gain territory and status, and they are still proud and arrogant.”

“All of that is true,” Legion agreed. “Wisdom is also a euphemism for slyness. Amethysts are the type of dragon that attempts to beat you before the fight starts, so you that you simply concede. If you dare to fight, then they are over-prepared and punish you accordingly. Since they move around other dragons instead of against them, they are a frustrating foe to counter.”

“They are also great foes of the Homo Mentos, who they believe stole the knowledge of psionic powers from their kind, yes?”

“In general, the Empire of Cold Blood considers humans to be dangerous nuisances and pests on the surface, and a long-term threat to be extinguished in private,” Legion confirmed. “The crystalline dragons’ grudge against the Homo Mentos is just an excuse to abandon their neutrality regarding conflicts,” she noted cynically.

“So, there is no way that the amethyst is not acting against humanity’s interests here.”

Legion considered that from a great many viewpoints and a deeper knowledge base than I had. “No,” they finally declared firmly. “It will be taking indirect action, but it is no friend to humanity, or even a neutral party. They manipulate through knowledge and lore and influence. The crystalline are certainly advising the Mahar, for instance, who would make a fine servant race for their kind.”

“From a draconic standpoint, the Dragonbound Pact with the Professor is a subtle way of taking a clever, influential, and potentially dynamic force of change and improvement among the human forces here off the board via the aloofness that comes with the Pact, is it not?”

“Yes,” they confirmed. “Pact influences are subtle and powerful, and very hard to fight, especially those of the crystallines, who are adept at such things.”

“And they chased the Mentos across the multiverse, harrying them from world to world for hundreds, possibly thousands of years.”

“The Mentos have led the Empire of Cold Blood to many worlds,” Legion confirmed quietly. “They are like a straggler you let go to lead you to more prey, and have performed their role admirably.”

“This strategy came from the amethysts, and is why the Mentos were not wiped out.”

“I cannot confirm that, but it is likely.”

“My Warlock, I have this incredible urge to butcher that amethyst and take its Dragonheart.”

Legion considered that for only a moment. “They are not sinister, Our Lady, but they are foes nonetheless, for all that they prefer not to fight directly themselves. It is a wise move. However, they are immune to force magic, which includes your Shards?”

“Oh, they think they are.” I flicked up an array of eighteen of them, revolving around my hand, and Sanctified them, adding an edge of holy light, and changing the ominous hum to something similar to solemn bells tolling in the distance... a dirge, if you were to listen closely. “Half-Divine power. And guess what happens when I declare a Fervored Silver Smite against them?”

“Ah! The other half is, too...” Legion realized quickly. “Its death will not cut the Dragonpact, either, as such are empowered by the ancestral might of the dragon, it is merely a conduit. That will lessen its influence on the Pactbound.”

I turned my eyes upward. A Commune with Nature did not reach past the Skyward that was in place there, nor did it reach down past the Ward if I was above it. “The vast majority of the dragons lair up on the cloud islands, yes?”

“Yes, it appeals to their ego, and the higher islands are unapproachable by lesser creatures. There are a few older ones deep in the seas, but even the water-dwellers prefer cloud lakes if they can get them. The earth-based ones naturally stay down low, of course.”

“So, we need to add dragon-hunting to the agenda, because the Empire of Cold Blood knows this Hollow World is here.”

“Yes, they have other ways of getting here. Our dragonsire came up from the Abyss via Plane-Shifting, with his son as a focus. There are ways through the Nevernever, if one dares the Fey, the Dreamscape, or the Ethereal, or just using the Astral, if one doesn’t mind attracting Divine attention.”

In other words, big super-intelligent magical world-conquering creatures knew how to get around the multiverse. Surprise, surprise. “How many dragons are you aware of in the Hollow World?”

“At least forty from the Empire. Another dozen from other Lineages?” they hazarded. “That discounts random Spawn, of course. We would not be surprised if drac-bloods run into the tens of thousands.”

“Frakking ecovores.” Infesting the bloody ecology and breeding with or dragonizing everything...

“It is a fine way to collect Dragonhearts, if one is of the right mindset,” Legion noted diplomatically.

-SO TRUE!- Sama /shouted from where she was engaged in slaughter of Buddhist Arhats and Sattivas.

-Ye gods.- Sama and Briggs with half-dragon Templates? Was it even possible, given their unbelievable Racial Class?

What was I thinking. How was it not possible? They were already used to paying for hideously overpowered Stats. What were more on the top?

But... -That’s probably not a good idea for the two of you,- I /told them.