Once the commanders received confirmation from the ancient captain that their leader was out of harm's way, their anxiety dissolved. They dispersed to tend to their duties, leaving Jeanne alone in the swirling gale, cradling the young child while she kept vigil over the blazing cocoon, waiting for her friend to stir.
Is she truly safe within that inferno? Jeanne wondered, staring into the bright amber waves. Under a heat intensity like this, any ordinary warrior would struggle to survive for even a few breaths. She suspected that even if she were to step into the sphere herself, she would have very few options to resist the temperature beyond turning and fleeing.
Then again, she had zero desire to test that theory. Jeanne detested being enclosed by fire; the sensation always stirred up ancient, complex memories of a past experience she preferred not to dwell upon.
Inside the raging dome, Talulah felt as though she had entered a vivid trance. She began to question if she had lingered within the cocoon for too long, depriving her brain of oxygen until her mind began projecting bizarre, unreadable illusions.
The visions arrived in fragmented, chaotic bursts. She witnessed ancient Draco ancestors refining their innate elements, training until their command over the flames achieved a terrifying majesty. A significant portion of these ancient techniques were far beyond her current understanding.
Her own mastery of fire had been entirely self-taught through crude trial and error. While the old serpent Kashchey had offered occasional pointers during her youth, his guidance was based on his general understanding of thermal destruction, not the unique biological heritage of a Draco.
Even an entity as arrogant as Kashchey dared not claim he fully understood the sovereign design of her race, nor could he fathom how their unique Originium arts defied conventional logic.
But within these racing fragments, the ancient sovereigns demonstrated their mastery without a shred of reservation, laying bare the paths she needed to follow to advance her own arts.
"Do you comprehend what is happening here? Why am I suddenly experiencing these visions?" Talulah questioned the darkness of her subconscious. She knew that besides her own spirit, another awareness resided within her soul.
An awareness she thoroughly loathed, yet one she had to admit possessed far more historical knowledge than herself.
"Have you still not deduced the cause?" Kashchey's voice echoed within her thoughts, carrying an undercurrent of awe. "Your flesh reacted to the presence of a kindred entity. That colossal creature in the clouds is nothing less than the original prototype of your entire Draco lineage. To witness such a marvel is an extraordinary revelation."
Though the old Duke could still communicate with his surrogate daughter, he was entirely locked out of the visions dancing across her consciousness. He could only monitor the phenomenon from the periphery, listening to her descriptions.
The area around them had been transformed into a localized sea of fire. Kashchey had no desire to test what would happen to his spiritual presence if he entered the heat; he could clearly sense that these unique flames possessed the power to injure his core, or even extinguish his awareness entirely.
"The prototype?" Talulah mused, her thoughts drifting to the iron-gray majesty of Fafnir. She recalled that Jeanne had dropped a few subtle hints regarding the child's true identity in the past, but she had failed to grasp the significance at the time.
Recalling the moment the transformation occurred, she remembered how her own blood had begun to boil the instant Fafnir unleashed her form. Had the child's presence triggered this awakening?
"Not exactly. Under that immense pressure, your sovereign lineage simply mounted a natural counter-offensive," Kashchey clarified, continuing to study her vitals. "The blood of the Elder race always carries special properties. It is entirely logical for the heritage to trigger a defensive awakening when confronted by a dominant force."
The old serpent noted the grand scale of the evolution taking root within her.
To put it plainly, the current Kashchey wouldn't dare attempt a hostile takeover of Talulah's vessel. He knew his spiritual form could never withstand the intensity of her new elements, whether on a physical or mental plane.
"The Elders... truly magnificent creatures," Kashchey murmured to himself. "Possessing such raw authority, I can finally comprehend why your ancestors managed to dominate Terra for so many centuries."
As he monitored her progress, the Duke began to wonder if the Hippogriffs of Ursus possessed a similar latent mechanism waiting to be startled awake.
They were Elder race as well. Although the current era no longer permitted individual warriors to dominate a modern battlefield, the ability to train a regiment of awakened god-born would elevate the empire's military prowess to a terrifying degree.
Unfortunately, he had no idea if any prototype Hippogriffs still survived on Terra, let alone where to find a primal entity capable of triggering their bloodlines.
He remembered historical accounts claiming that the ancient Hippogriffs could tread upon the very air, commanding the open skies with an aerial advantage that few nations could match. Yet that sublime sorcery had vanished from the realm thousands of years ago.
Even General Hellagur, the most formidable Hippogriff currently serving the crown, could no longer replicate such a feat. The old general could merely utilize wind arts to accelerate his movements, crushing his adversaries through sheer speed on the ground.
As the old snake continued his internal monologue, Talulah ignored his ramblings. High above, Fafnir completed her reversion back into a human form, causing the boiling sensation within the Draco's veins to gradually recede.
As the protective curtain of fire began to thin, a sudden realization struck her. My armor and everyday clothes aren't exactly fireproof. What on earth am I going to look like when these flames vanish?
When her physical senses finally reconnected with the outside world, she received a mixture of good and bad news. The bad news was that her outer uniform had indeed been reduced to ash during the initial eruption of her arts.
The good news was that she wasn't entirely exposed. The dark red vestments Jeanne had gifted her months ago remained completely untouched by the extreme temperatures, looking exactly as pristine as they did on a normal day.
Though this wasn't the first time she had witnessed the miraculous properties of the garment, she couldn't help but marvel at its craftsmanship as she stood barefoot in the snow drifts, clad only in the dark red fabric.
"What are you standing there daydreaming for? Put these on immediately! In weather this severe, you'll catch a miserable chill if you linger like that!"
Before her thoughts could drift any further, a bundle of fresh clothing sailed through the air, thrown by Jeanne who had taken them from Fafnir's small hands.
Jeanne had been genuinely worried that her friend would be left without a stitch of clothing after the inferno cleared, only to find the Draco standing in the drifts, completely lost in thought. Did this girl possess zero awareness of the freezing northern winds?
In truth, Talulah felt no cold whatsoever. The air around her form remained charged with a residual heat so intense that a common soldier would have suffered scorched airways simply by breathing it in.
Yet the Draco breathed normally, experiencing zero discomfort. While she hadn't explored the full extent of her new gifts, her natural resistance to extreme temperatures had clearly advanced by several orders of magnitude.
Jeanne stared at her with an expression that suggested she believed this dragon was beyond saving, wondering if she should find a fresh one to raise instead.
Sensing her friend's critical gaze, Talulah shook off her daze. With an embarrassed flush, she hurriedly pulled on the fresh coat and boots before walking over to Jeanne's side, attempting to initiate a casual conversation as if nothing unusual had transpired.
"The skirmish... is it already concluded?" she asked, offering a question whose answer was perfectly visible to the naked eye.
"You would have been better off remaining silent rather than asking something so obvious," Jeanne replied, tapping the side of Talulah's head with a soft sigh. "Did that extreme heat genuinely scramble the few wits you possessed?"
"No," Talulah muttered, looking out over the scorched, black canyon floor. Her voice carried a trace of solemn wonder. "I simply find the speed of your resolution difficult to accept. It makes me wonder what our warriors have been struggling so hard for during these past weeks."
"Your squads performed magnificently," Jeanne reassured her, placing a hand on the leader's shoulder as they watched the personnel move through the gorge. A few industrious teams were currently hauling back the heavy artillery pieces that Fafnir's gale had tossed onto the far ridges. "How many groups within Ursus would possess the courage to stand against a disciplined military force like that? Even without my intervention, your victory would have made Reunion famous across the frontier."
"By the way, what internal shifts do you feel?" Jeanne continued, pinching her chin as she circled the Draco to inspect her from every angle. "According to Patriot's assessment, you were supposed to undergo a massive transformation, yet you look exactly the same to me. Even your tail feels identical to before."
"The changes are internal, obviously," Talulah countered, swatting Jeanne's hand away from her tail. "My physical structure isn't going to morph overnight. That would be horrifying. The awakening settled within my energy reserves."
To demonstrate her point, she raised a hand to summon a small spark of her fire arts.
The subsequent breath, a pillar of intense fire erupted from her palm, shooting more than two meters into the air. The sudden output caught even Talulah by surprise, forcing her to lean back in alarm.
"Good heavens... that nearly singed my eyebrows off! How can the output be this fierce? In the past, utilizing this specific amount of focus would barely yield a tiny flame for a hearth!"
Staring at the brilliant, crackling fire dancing across her palm, the Draco leader could hardly believe the evidence of her own senses.
Have I truly become this formidable?