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CURSE OF THE DRAGON ISLES

Even with the ever-present, black mist bounding the body, Lino still stood in shock and awe beneath it, trying to process the reality in front of him . This was the case especially so when the pair of eyes opened far up above, staring down at him with a peculiar, emerald sheen . They glowed faintly, piercing through the mist in the form of rays, basking the land beneath and around him .

The pair of eyes were wide and angled, bounding over forty meters at least by Lino’s rough estimates . They scrutinized him deeply as the tepid wind blew abound, casting the fogged mist slightly away and revealing the scaled head; Lino’s expression turned grim, his eyes squinting, as he laid them upon the beyond deformed reality in front of him .

Faintly green scales looped over each other in rows, yet those distinctions were barely visible beneath tumor-like growths spreading everywhere, some transparent and some opaque, occasionally probed with dirty-yellow mucus spilling over and hardening on the scales’ surface . The head that used to be a faintly narrowed rectangle was all but, most-likely bearing ten times as much weight due to the excessive tumors everywhere .

Above the two green eyes, like looming cliffs; they closed up both nostrils completely; the scales around the maw eroded away, creating a gaping hole giving a glimpse to the insides that were just a worse reflection of the outside – massive, rotted teeth abound with unsustainable growths, bleeding yellow occasionally .

"... holy fuck..." he mumbled in utter disbelief, shuddering . It barely resembled a Dragon’s head, and if he were not aware he was on the Dragon Isles he would swear up and down this was a deformed monstrosity that had nothing to do with actual Dragons . A realization dawned upon him as he glanced further beyond, though the rest of the body was hidden by the mist; if the head was so bad, he wondered, then what about the rest of the body?

"... curious?" a pained, hoarse, low voice spoke directly into his mind, causing him to veer his gaze back over to the pair of dimming, emerald eyes .

"... I’m sorry . " he said lowly, sighing .

"Why? It’s not your fault . " the Dragon said .

"Whose is it?" he asked .

"I wish I knew . "

"... you know who I am?" Lino asked after a brief moment of silence .

"Though I may be old and sick," the Dragon replied, a faint trace of amusement phasing through the pain and exhaustion . "I am not senile, young Empyrean . "

"Eh, I can never tell with you Dragons . " he cracked a faint smile .

"... I may know who you are, but not why you’re here . "

"... to help?" he mumbled, lacking all conviction he had prior to arriving on the Isles .

"... me? Hardly . Some others? Perhaps . " the Dragon said . "To imagine a day would arrive as such..."

"... who are you?" Lino asked with faint hesitation .

"My name is Ayrdia," the Dragon replied . "Aspect of Wind... or at least, I used to be... a long time ago . "

"Did the mist cause... all this?" he asked meekly .

"No," the Dragon replied . "The mist is of our own creation, designed to prevent any curious-like from escaping and potentially spreading whatever it is that we have . "

"..." Lino sighed inwardly, once more inspecting the growths through his Divine Sense . Ayrdia didn’t seem to mind, giving him complete freedom . It wasn’t difficult to conclude she would die; the growths seeped into every facet of her body, corrupting it completely inside out . What was on the surface was exactly that – mere surface . What resided deep below... was far, far worse... "What can you tell me that might help?" he asked .

"... hardly much," Ayrdia replied . "Nobody is immune, it seems – not even the Origin Dragons... but, from what we gathered, some other species do seem to have immunities . Humans, however, don’t, so if I were you, I would be careful . "

"..."

"Though the mist itself hasn’t existed for too long relatively speaking, whatever it is that we have has been around since Fiendish Era, though it was a hereditary disease at first . Eventually, even the healthy adult Dragons began contracting it, which is when we cut ourselves off from the world . In time, we would construct the mist as living here... takes a toll . "

"—how many Dragons are still alive?" Lino asked .

"The first Exodus is yet to arrive, so not many have died," Ayrdia explained . "Though, as you can see, it is not too far away . "

"... does everyone react the same to it?"

"Yes . Internal corruption followed by an external one . It’s our own Curse, it seems . "

"... no such thing as a curse," Lino mumbled . "Thank you . Can I do anything for you?"

"... on your journey, if you ever come across a young fledgling that calls herself Mevy, try all in your power to cure her . She is, in a sense, my child . "

"... will do . " Lino nodded, sighing once more . "Here," he suddenly took out a small talisman and put it down by the Dragon’s side . "If it ever gets too much... just peer into it with your mind . "

"Thank you . " the voice suddenly seemed lighter, as though a burden was lifted off of it . "You are at the moment on the 44th Island – it’s a medium-sized one . Up north is where the Ruling Aspect used to live – as far as I’m aware, it is still there . You might get more answers from them . "

"... thank you . And... good luck . "

"Likewise..."

Lino descended down the cliff slowly, glancing back once more as the pair of emerald green eyes closed up, growing back into the darkness surrounding it . Sighing lightly, he spun around and walked away without looking back again . After a little while, the faint breath could be heard whizzing through the wind, carrying a sense of relief and joy, as it ceased .

His mind repeatedly flashed back not to the growths themselves, but what he saw beyond the carcass; at the deepest level, it was easy to see the cause behind them – uncontrolled, repeated growth of cells .

"... who do you think could have done something like that?" Lino asked .

"I... honestly don’t know," Ataxia replied, seeming just as, if not more, surprised as Lino . "This is honestly the first time I’ve interacted with Dragons in a long, long time... and I never took a Dragon as a Bearer . "

"... Gods would be my first guess based on the method," Lino mumbled . "But, I don’t think they’ve developed even the theory behind the cells until much later . The Cult, maybe? Dangwe did seem to know an awful lot, and his current actions might all be smokes and mirrors . Why, though? Or could it have been any-old-High Lord?"

"... your guess is as good as mine . "

"It’s terrifying, though," Lino said, frowning . "Either someone really wanted the Dragon Race to suffer... or they themselves didn’t know what would the lasting effects be . Any idea on how to cure it? At least before it reaches that stage..."

"... shouldn’t that be your area of expertise between the two of us?"

"... eeh, I know bits and pieces behind it," Lino shrugged . "I should have brought Tim along . Hm?" he glanced sideways as he came to a halt; from the mist, two figures suddenly appeared, the one on the left quickly darting over to him, inspecting his entire body with Divine Sense without paying attention to his futile resistance . "Oi, oi, what are you doing?!" he asked Ella somewhat angrily .

"You’re fine," she said, sighing in relief and hugging him after a few moments . "You’re fine..."

"She was worried you might have developed those growths . " Amadeel said, walking up to him and smiling .

"—oh," Lino exclaimed lowly . "Well, I haven’t . So, you’ve met a Dragon as well, I’m assuming?"

"Yeah," Amadeel nodded . "Aspect of Wind, Yev . You too?"

"Yup," he nodded . "Growths all over?"

"Yeah . "

"... fuck . What do you think it is?" he asked the two; Amadeel shook his head helplessly, indicating he didn’t know, while Ella entered a deep thought for a moment .

"—effectively a forced mutation," she said . "One that would usually be erased from the pool because, well, that’s how the species survives . Yev said that the corruption happened in stages; starting from a few newborns, to every member of the species that was on the Dragon Isles . "

"... yeah," Lino nodded . "But... why? And who? I really can’t believe that it’s all just natural... or, you know, a freakin’ curse . "

"It’s not," Ella shook her head . "As to how, why or who, however... I’m just as clueless as you are . "

"... we should have brought some of the Gods," Lino said, rubbing his temples in frustration . "Even if we’re still taking baby steps when it comes to understanding it all, they are far smarter at this than me . "

"We should head over to the Ruling Aspect first," Amadeel said . "And see if we can learn anything more . I imagine that they’ve exhausted all options in terms of curing it, so before blindly stumbling around trying things, we may as well learn what they tried . "

"Hm," Lino nodded, pondering for a moment whether he should tell them about ’her’, though in the end choosing not to . He didn’t think either could tell him what or who she was and, even more, he didn’t wish to play around with Ataxia’s trust . "It’s a good thing we told Vy to stay outside..."

"... yeah," Ella nodded, sighing, as they headed northward . "I can’t even imagine his reaction to all this . Though, eventually, we’ll probably have to look at what’s so different about him that he didn’t develop the growths . That way we might come to a solution . "

"Yeah..."

The three continued walking in silence, each trying desperately to weave through to the answers they, deep in their hearts, knew they didn’t possess .