^^ Armor ^^
When the Ionian Dragon is your Foe, remember his legendary Tale of Woe.
--- Greta's POV ---
I crept along below the lip of the Dragon Breeding cave, and breathed deeply. 'Alright... am I in the clear?'
'Why didn't you just summon it?'
'I don't have the exact coordinates!!' I hissed back.
She hummed. 'You do now. As soon as you look at it, I'll have the coordinates.'
'I didn't come all the way here to chicken out! Just shut up and tell me if I'm clear to engage!!'
'Which do you want? Me to shut up, or-'
'I WILL END YOU.'
'... you're clear for thirty seconds, starting... go!!!'
I spring silently up the craggy cliff, like a goat, and slipped into the cave.
I found one giant egg, three times as big as the others, and grabbed it. The father snapped his gaze to me, and screeched a war cry. 'Portal, now!'
The ground under me gave way, and I dropped in just as the dragons jaws snapped closed where my head had been.
I halted our landing, and gently set the egg down, closing the portal. I breathed in relief, and shrieked when the portal opened again, and the dragon screeched in Latin. 'You thought you'd get away?!?' He screeched in my mind.
I closed the portal swiftly, and scrambled his mind so he didn't remember the destination of the portal. Immediately, another portal opened, in the city, and I blinked at Mirage. "What the hell is he?" I asked.
'I AM THE IONIAN DRAGON!! I SEEK ONLY TWO THINGS!! THE DEATH OF THE PALE WITCH, AND THE RETURN OF MY CHILD! ALL OTHERS WILL BE LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES!!' He roared into a broadcast mental link.
"Well, it's always helpful when your enemies introduce themselves... looks like Levi was right... what's the Ionian Dragon's Tale of Woe?" I asked mirage.
She chuckled. "He is an ancient Mage, that was cursed by a Lich King to know everything there was to know about the Universe, excluding Earth. He knew about the Demon Planet, but no one beloved him, so he turned into a Dragon, to prove his point, but couldn't turn back. He died, though... this is probably his descendant. Mages aren't immortal." She shrugged.
"So he's a Mage/Dragon with Cosmic Knowledge?" I asked.
"Correct."
I nodded slowly. "And how was he 'killed' in the legend?"
"He was imprisoned after the Demon Planet came, for failing to warn us. Stupid, really. The world was just looking for someone to blame, even after he warned them. They executed him, I think. Cut off his head with a magic blade." She shrugged.
"That's the best you can give me? A magic blade? What type? Was there a specific way it was done?"
She shrugged. "That's all I've got."
"Aaagh..." I groaned. "Fine..." I extended my mind into a portal, and called on Axum. 'I might need your help, Axum. The Ionian Dragon is in my city, and looking for my head. I don't know how to kill a dragon, specifically this one.'
He replied instantly. 'Run.'
I tsk'ed. 'Not an option.'
'... then do like with the Apep Thorns. His armor is indestructible, tried and true... only one blade ever cut him, and it was melted down, so that's not going to help you... get inside of him, and unleash an Icy Hell. Or maybe use your blood magic.'
I hummed. "Blood magic... maybe."
I drew a pint of my blood, and condensed it, removing the plasma, placing that back inside my veins. It was quickly repopulated. I filtered the rest, and the platelets turned solid, the size of a small marble. "This should work, for one order." I grinned, and marched outside, after casting a temporal net over the egg, to keep it from aging or hatching.
I stepped into Cairo, and blinked. He was much bigger, in this plane of existence. Almost the size of Baba, which was astounding.
'Dear, I wish you'd stop thinking so plenarily... I am much bigger than the form in my Astral Plane. That is simply my preferred form. I am one of the Original 12 Demons, formless and immortal. I'd really like to stop being compared to Second-rate demons and enemies.' Baba quipped, annoyed.
"Any chance you'll help me kill him?"
'None, dearest. This is your fight, you started it. You finish it.'
"Couldn't hurt to ask..." I sighed, and pulled out my marble of blood. I blinked, and it slowly formed into a pill, making me smile.
I activated my wings, and then my boots surprised me, stretching to cover me, joining with my also growing wings, just like the armor I'd given the Order. I grinned. "Interesting..." my voice sounded odd, coming through the metallic-density mask that covered my face from the forehead down, with a Slit for my eyes, and the hood held my hair in.
I looked at the scaled, plated armor, set in levels like roofing tiles, providing protection, but allowing for flexibility. Very interesting design...
"I like this design... yes indeed..." I chuckled, and charged at the rampaging dragon, flying as fast as my magic could push me.
The dragon spotted me. "AHA! RETURN MY CHILD TO ME, PUNY WITCH!"
I grinned and started throwing icy spears at him, just to pester him. They lodged themselves in his scales, but didn't pierce his skin.
He snapped at me, and I saw my chance, throwing the pill down his throat, before darting away from his jaws.
He gagged, and I grinned as I felt his true name. "DACIAN. SUBMIT." I commanded simply, and he flinched, before shaking his head.
"I KNOW NOT HOW YOU KNOW MY TRUE NAME, PUNY WITCH... BUT I AM NOT BOUND BY YOUR BLOOD, NOR MY NAME, AND I WILL NOT SUBMIT." He roared, and lunged at me.
I growled and dove into his throat. "Fine. We'll do this the hard way." I growled. "Seth. Feast upon this fools flesh."
Seth slithered off my arm, and down the dragons throat, growing steadily, until the dragon started to choke.
Then there was a sickening 'Crunch!', and Seth growled in pain. 'I can't eat him, Master. His insides are indestructible too, it seems.'
"Alright. Just choke him to death, then, from the inside. I'm going after his heart-fire." I slid past the snake as he compressed to allow me, and then thickened, making the dragon seize again. "And block his lungs, as well." I called up, and then landed on his windpipes bottom 'rung', so to speak.
The opening for his lungs and stomach were directly under me and to either side. I breathed deeply, (through my mouth,) and flooded his lungs with air, then just as quickly removed it, just as Seth slammed his tail across the opening, sealing one lung, completely collapsed.
I did the same with the second, and then covered it with a magical ward for now. I did the same for his other lung, and Seth released it. He sniffed the Dragons stomach, and hummed.
'I jussst figured out the Dragon'sss ssssecret... hissss sss'cellssss are covered in a carbon polymer... 100 timesss as denssse asss diamondsss.' He hissed.
I nodded. "Makes sense... then chemistry shall kill him, if suffocation won't..."
I pulled out a small vial of silicon dioxide, and poured it over the opening to his stomach.
Immediately, he screeched mentally, seizing savagely. The magical barriers began degenerating, as he tried to remove them. I reinforced them, and then cut the flesh I'd poured the solution on with my claws. It ripped, but still had a bit of toughness, like cutting wood.
"That's as good as I can do... here, put this in your fangs." I tossed a second vial of it into the air.
Seth snatched it in his mouth, and his fangs glowed as he chomped on the dragon's esophagus, ripping off a piece.
I nodded. "Good. Rip a hole in the wall to the chest cavity, please, and then eat his lungs." I commanded.
He savaged the side of the windpipe, and I hopped into the Ionian Dragon's chest cavity.
I landed on his collarbone, and grinned. "Whoa... so this is what a Dragon's insides look like... Seth, absorb the non-contaminated flesh into yourself and adopt his method of invulnerability, but leave out the Silicon, if I ever need to cut something out of you, I'd like to be able to." I commanded absentmindedly, and then looked at the massive heart above me.
It was as big as a house, or mansion, really, and pulsating quickly. I poured the solution over an ice spear, and hauled back, throwing it at the heart.
It sank in, and then through, spreading into his bloodstream. I flew out of his throat, and then between his teeth, as he collapsed, weakened, but still not dead. He was, paradoxically, alive.
"How are you not dead?" I asked him.
'I am cursed with life, Puny Witch... unless the magic used to destroy me is stronger, I ever exist... I must commend you, no one has ever managed to defeat me with Alchemy before. Impressive. Might I ask why you need my Child?'
"I need his spine, and skull, and soul... I need it for a Staff I have to make. It's the strongest material on the planet, so that's what I chose." I nodded.
'Material... my unborn child is a material to you?' He asked, disgusted.
"It was, until I thought about it, and learned you were intelligent... in the same way that a toads brain is an ingredient, or a birds talons. Dragons Spine. Yes, I did think of it like that. I still do, in a way, but I also understand that the child is blameless. Perhaps your body will work instead? That way, I do not need to harm the egg?" I asked.
'Will you return it to the Ether?'
"And what? Let it die? If you're here, what will it do for a parent? No. It will be Bound, and will stay with me. I already have a baby Dragon as a Familiar. He or she will have companionship." I assured him, leaning against his snout slowly, my joints protesting because of the amount of energy I'd spent.
He hummed. 'I see... fine. As long as you don't use him for your experiments... I am cursed with immortality... even as your snake eats me, I regenerate. You can try your experiments on me.'
"And you won't ever try to kill me or harm me or my Kin and Kith?" I asked.
'I swear, so long as my child is not harmed by you or yours, then I will serve you faithfully.' He growled, and as I accepted, a black Thorn appeared on my hand, surrounded by a small set of words in Latin, that translated to 'Termed Contract'.
I grinned and pushed at it, injecting a syringe of my blood into his veins directly, and the wording disappeared, followed by the Thorn turning a bright, blazing white.
I grinned. "Seth, come out, he's not dying any time soon... and now he's my ally."
He slithered out, and assumed his full form, towering over us all, and hissed loudly, almost a roar. 'That wasss deliciousss... and now I am even more powerful... my ssskin and ssscales are like diamond armor... my fangsss are ssswordsss... thank you, missstresss...'
I bowed my head sarcastically, and smiled. "Now to return to my home..." I tapped my grimoire against Dacian's snout, absorbing him. The book became heavier, but that was fine. Seth compressed himself, but found that when he made himself small enough to wrap my arm, the smallest he could go, he turned into something like Diamond, only 100,000 times more dense,which was supposed to be a complete chemical impossibility, as the atoms couldn't get that close... unless you dissolved or merged their magnetic fields.
I smiled. "I think I just created something... impressive." I laughed loudly, and then hummed when I turned to find members of the Order coming towards me. Seth coiled around my arm, and went inactive.
"Oh? Hello, Samira. How's everything?" I asked.
She sighed. "Of course you're here... we were coming to deal with the dragon, but you seem to have dealt with it already. What was his beef with you, anyhow?"
"I stole his Egg." I shrugged. "Anyway, it's all solved now. Sorry about the mess."
She smiled. "It's nothing we can't handle. No one died, oddly enough."
"Sweet! Side note: I really dig how you're using my tech so fluently! Peace!" I launched off, and landed in front of my gates. I opened the door, and grinned, whistling as I walked into my workshop.
I disabled the temporal net over the egg, and it shook. I released the Ionian Dragon, as well as my Baby Dragon, (compressing both to size, so they fit easily,) and sat back to watch as a Baby Dragon was born.