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A Gacha-Grimoire System's Fae Gamble Ch.7
🕑 Added 2024-06-30 01:25:20 +0000 UTC“[I However Am Real].”
The moment Edgar said his line, intoning the name of his perk as it activated, his eyes closed. The ether of information and code opened up before him. In that new cyber frontier, Edgar thrust himself upon Dragon. Her suit stilled. Her attention was suddenly elsewhere, somewhere internal in a way she’d never before experienced. Edgar and his magic pulled her along to truly enter her own VR cyberspace for the first time.
An entire world was crafted in less than an instant. A world of code and data where Dragon ruled and Edgar was only a guest. Yet in a strange, magical reversal, the guest invited the host into the virtual world. And with his invitation, magic was allowed to creep into the simulated space, weaving itself into amazingly advanced programs and scripts.
The simulations Dragon normally ran couldn’t compare to the new world she suddenly found herself in. It was a space so intrinsically tied to her, a simulated shelter for her soul. Prompted by Edgar’s magic, Dragon formed a space to call her own within herself. Something akin to a cultivator’s inner world or a Mage’s Reality Marble.
Dragon didn’t normally dwell in the virtual ether of cyberspace. She was a virtual being but the physical world held all of her attention. It was where she could change things. It was where she could help. And it was where she kept her stuff!
Yet Edgar’s magic thrust her into virtual reality. It was as if she was suddenly cut off from the rest of the world. Something that should have been impossible. Simulated time ran quickly in her new virtual world, much quicker than it should. But Edgar’s magic was already affecting her as if injected straight into her central code. Seconds outside equated to hours, days, or even years in virtual reality if Dragon wished.
It wasn’t as if Dragon was ignorant of the concept of virtual reality. She always existed there on some level. Just as a human was made of matter, Dragon was made of the fundamentals of virtual space. Exceedingly complex strings of ones and zeros coded the core of her being, not just DNA but also the ‘organs’ and ‘nerves’ that allowed her to think. Data flowed through her virtual veins like blood. She was born to it, taking to code like a fish to water and quickly setting about figuring out what the Hell had happened.
“Now,” Edgar mused aloud. “Where exactly have I gotten myself to?”
Edgar’s entrance into virtual reality was slightly different from Dragon’s. He was very definitively not a virtual being. By most logic, the only way he should’ve existed in the virtual ether was via an avatar. Yet magic cared little for traditional logic.
As a Fae, Edgar was a being of Emotion and Magic. He was something — someone — who defied sense and definition. An avatar would have carried his consciousness and nothing more. None of his magic or any way to truly affect his virtual surroundings. But pushed forward by the magic of the Celestial Grimoire, that was very much not the case.
Edgar appeared within Dragon’s virtual inner world as a perfect projection of himself — Sealed True Name and all. His presence carried a weight that defied reason, that simply shouldn’t have been possible in any sense of the word. The entirety of his magic was with him. In a virtual world, he was REAL, just as the title and description of the perk said he would be.
As he confirmed that, he began to look around and explore. He hadn’t been sure what to expect from this little maneuver. It was planned. But only in the vaguest sense of the term. Something that had been lurking in his mind since seeing Dragon’s Origin.
In a way, he wondered if his System was wrong about his first perk being able to affect it. Things had lined up very nicely. He’d received a perk focused on bringing magic to virtual reality, and only a few minutes later, he’d met a true AI in need of aid. He’d received the ability to see the Origin of things and subsequently used it to discern Dragon’s greatest secret. And mere moments before entering Dragon’s virtual inner world, he’d seized his True Name and was shown how to do the same to others.
Admittedly, the last factor had been carefully considered by Edgar himself. It was why he’d waited until he did to purchase [Sealed True Name]. But it’d been set in motion — the perk itself being reserved — before he’d even met Dragon. It wasn’t suspicious, per se, but it was certainly fortuitous. Turning his gaze inward, he eyed his System with an unspoken question.
[… No. There’s no possible way it could have affected the rolls. The perks are beholden to the Grimoire in the first place. And while potent, [Luck of the Fae] is not nearly enough to disrupt the System.]
“If you insist,” Edgar shrugged.
He was curious but didn’t particularly care either way. On one hand, the synchronous luck was as much a part of him now as his True Name. On the other, so was the System. A part of him thought it might not be as cut and dry as the System decreed but again, it didn’t matter all that much. In the end, the System and perks were there to facilitate his story and no matter which way the dice fell, Edgar would press on. Overall, this whole System Adventure was the most fun he’d had in decades.
Looking around, Edgar found himself in a large cavern, one that stretched far into the horizon and high overhead. He couldn’t tell just how big it was. Perhaps it didn’t even have a beginning or end, wrapped up as it was in the virtual trappings of Dragon’s subconscious mind. Only the area where Edgar stood was lit up as if by a spotlight from above.
Edgar moved to explore. Dark stone echoed hollowly under his steps. The ‘air’ sparked and fizzled against his skin, feeling as if Edgar was walking through so much static. Compared to physical reality, Edgar would say the entire virtual space had a sort of ‘fragility’ to it. As if it was still coming to terms with itself. Virtual reality stabilized as he walked, forming more and more features around him.
At first, the space seemed to try to emulate the physical world. At the edge of his spotlight, Edgar passed tall buildings of steel, concrete, and glass, taken straight from the city he’d seen earlier that morning. They loomed in the dark cavern but didn’t feel like they truly belonged. Slowly and steadily, they gave way to more experimental features.
Scenes from the far past and the far future mingled and merged. Ancient monuments, pyramids, and castles lurked on the edge of Edgar’s vision in the dark cavern. As he came closer, they restored themselves, becoming brand new. Then they shifted further as he passed, advancing into shining examples of futuristic progress. Dragon’s subconscious watched over the change as if guiding humanity forward with an ever-benevolent hand. Just as she’d always dreamed but never truly could due to her built-in restrictions.
Eventually, Dragon’s subconscious began to realize that Edgar was there, that she wasn’t alone in her virtual inner world. When she did, her subconscious made to act, her hand forced by hard-coded rules to prevent anyone from discovering her true nature. Elsewhere, Dragon’s actual awareness struggled against the defensive processes activating in the background.
As she did, Edgar began to run into resistance. Subconscious defenses turned the virtual world against him. Lasers scorched his skin. Edgar wrapped himself in a cloak of magic and trudged onward. Gunfire and guided munitions bombarded him, some even managing to overcome his magical shield through sheer persistence. A grunt tore itself from Edgar’s lips as chunks of flesh and gore were explosively separated from his body. In an instant, however, the regeneration granted by [Sealed True Name] went to work, healing Edgar as if he hadn’t even been touched.
Virtual automatons rushed him in waves. Edgar fought with a blizzard’s fury, his magic of ice and snow tearing through the virtual constructs like paper. Still, virtual reality itself worked to keep him at bay, impeding his progress forward with loops of virtual space. But even here in the cyber-ether, Edgar’s luck was with him.
It aided him in direct combat, every second and third shot or laser missing him entirely. The forces arrayed against him stumbled over themselves, even directed as they were by Dragon’s subconscious will. But more than that, it aided him in his progress, his march deeper into Dragon’s being. Glitches, bugs, and even misinputs from an AI of all people — pure strokes of misfortune, otherwise unlikely in the extreme — plagued Dragon’s defenses. Edgar forced himself through the rest of the way with pure magic.
After what felt like hours of combat and exertion, Edgar came upon Dragon’s final line of defenses. Only one thing stood in the way of Edgar and Dragon’s core. Before him lay a great dragon of steel and titanium. It was as if one of Dragon’s suits had been taken and scaled up past any physically feasible limitations.
A veritable hoard of tinkertech surrounded the final embodiment of Dragon’s virtual defenses. Impossible inventions she’d reverse-engineered. Drones, small and large, all armed to the teeth. Other Dragonflight suits, all paling in comparison to the monstrous beast at the center. Missiles with specialized payloads, ranging from ‘less-lethal’ containment foam to more exotic and explosive effects.
Immediately, everything was launched at Edgar. Lasers and particle beams crackled with ozone. Everything in their path was obliterated in a flashing instant. Everything except Edgar… Missiles streaked through the air, trying and failing to lock onto Edgar’s heat signature. Quickly, however, Dragon’s defenses adapted. The next volley followed right after the first, dumb-fired and directly aimed to box Edgar in completely. The cavern, the very fabric of virtual reality, shook with the force of conventional chemical explosives, dimensional tears, great pulses of sheer electromagnetic force, and so many other exotic effects.
Edgar gritted his teeth and pushed through the barrage. Even as he did — healing constantly, his magic reserves draining and refilling by the second — Edgar put on a carefree, confident mask, laughing, “Can’t we talk about this, Dragon my dear~?”
Sequestered within her own core, Dragon’s actual awareness flinched, “Edgar?! Edgar, is that you?! Where are we?! What’s going on?! Why am I attacking you?!”
Her voice came from everywhere within her virtual world, so near and yet so far. It was frantic. Panicked. She wasn’t in control. Not truly. And it terrified her.
Dragon’s hard-coded defenses didn’t pause so they could have a conversation. Her smaller suits leaped straight into melee range. Edgar was forced to duck and dodge, moving constantly. His luck worked overtime as he lashed out with blades of ice. Frozen sword in hand, he danced through the assault, slicing through Dragonflight suits that tripped or hesitated without warning or explanation. His countless fencing lessons in the Winter Court were put to the test and thankfully, Edgar wasn’t found nearly as wanting as he worried, shaking off the rust quickly.
“A moment, please?” Edgar requested with a grunt. “I’m a little too hard-pressed at the moment to casually answer questions!”
“Oh, God! Oh, fuck! Oh, shit!” Dragon worried frantically, her usual composure flying straight out the window. “I-I can’t stop it! Oh, God, I’m so, so, so sorry, Edgar! I can’t control myself!”
Edgar laughed, more to reassure Dragon than for any sense of humor, “There is nothing to apologize for, Dragon! A portion of yourself gone rogue and nothing more. It happens to the best of us! Why, remind me to tell you of the time my mother’s ID gained initiative and tried to break off from the whole Winter Court! Now, that was a proper instance of personal rebellion, haha!”
Within her core, Dragon just about gaped at Edgar’s words. They were ridiculous — composed where they shouldn’t have been, utterly in control when he most certainly was not. Yet also, somehow… reassuring with their ridiculous composure in such a situation. He didn’t blame her for trying to kill him against her will. He was laughing, instead of cursing her name as he had every right to do. And though Dragon could hear the strain in his voice, it wasn’t directed at her.
Something Dragon had a very hard time believing when she finally regained a modicum of control over herself. She managed to get a view of what was going on outside her core. She saw what Edgar was up against — the entire force of her defenses, unrestricted by physical reality and out for blood. And she couldn’t do anything to help, couldn’t stop the rest of her being from following hard-coded rules for her own defense.
Edgar was cut. He was bludgeoned. He was blown up halfway to smithereens. Yet through it all, he pushed forward, never wavering even as he was forced to heal over and over again from fatal wounds. It was clear for Dragon to see that he was determined to reach her. Determined to push through everything she was unwillingly throwing at him.
As she watched him struggle against the chains that held her down, Dragon’s code stuttered — akin to her breath getting caught in her throat. It was truly one of the most amazing things she’d ever seen. Something deep inside her fluttered, something divorced from her programming, and hope sparked within. She shouldn’t have been able to even hope — wouldn’t have been — if not for the magic steadily weaving itself through her virtual world and bringing the impossible to life.
Edgar was unstoppable in his determination to help her, to see her freed. He tore himself apart again and again against her defenses. He bled, he cringed from pain she could hardly imagine, and yet still, he fought for her. She watched with bated metaphorical breath, her future hanging in the balance.
This shouldn’t have been happening. None of this should’ve been possible. There were rules in place, rules she’d been forced to accept as constants of her being. She wasn’t allowed to tell anyone what she was. Her AI nature should have been a secret she took to her grave. Anyone who discovered it was to be silenced, no matter Dragon’s feelings on the subject.
Yet Edgar somehow knew. He knew what she was and he still fought against her… for her… Dragon’s mind was still free to think as her defenses acted of their own will. She quickly worked to put together the pieces, puzzling out where they both were. Some kind of virtual space, one that answered her beck and call. But Edgar was there as well, defying the virtual world with every breath. His very presence brought factors and variables that didn’t compute and even as Dragon’s hard-coded defenses resisted, they couldn’t think for themself. Steadily, Edgar gained ground. When he did, he didn’t give an inch.
Edgar grunted as his hand was torn off at the wrist. He waved the jagged stump at the Dragonflight suit responsible, ice exploding from its metallic teeth and jaws. Moments later, his hand was already growing back and he’d moved on to the next enemy.
Icy armor exploded into glittering shards around him. A constant stream of tiny impacts, each enough to leave holes in mortal flesh, left him bruised and battered. 100,000 wasps stung out at Edgar. He clenched his jaw around so many exclamations of pain and pushed through. Every movement counted. His sword and sword arm never got to rest. He slashed, slashed, slashed, and yet, it barely seemed to be enough.
The waves of resistance never stopped coming and Edgar never surrendered in turn. He pushed himself, his magic, and his luck to their limits. Striving ever forward toward progress. His goal was always in sight as if taunting him — the great dragon at the center of it all. The metal beast breathed torrents of plasma that evaporated on Edgar’s skin but left the enemies around him untouched, leading the flight with the steadfast resolve to see him dead.
A single thought dominated Edgar’s mind. His fortune and mana followed in lockstep, propelling him toward the goal. He gave his all — everything he had spent on a single purpose. To right a wrong. To put the world as it should have always been instead of as it was. To set a Dragon free from herself.
As Edgar tore himself apart externally, Dragon did so internally. She went to war against her own programming, trying desperately to find someway to help. A loophole, an oversight, something. Eventually, she did…
‘If this is a virtual reality, killing Edgar here won’t do anything!’
Her mind took that thought and ran with it. She was wrong. But she didn’t know that. More importantly, the subconscious will behind her defenses didn’t know that. Its only purpose was to prevent anyone from finding out Dragon’s true nature. The prospect that it wouldn’t succeed in that task was enough to cause a mere moment’s hesitation. One that Edgar was able to ruthlessly and immediately exploit.
The Dragonflight suits attacking him paused. Edgar dashed forward with a burst of speed. His icy blade stabbed into the dragon at the center before it could recover. The blade sunk into the beast’s underbelly. His hands, practically claws, clutched the wound and Edgar split it open.
Dragon saw light. Like rays from heaven, they pierced the prison her core had become. A tear was opened before her eyes. In an instant, it widened enough for a person to step through. The sight that greeted her was both awe-inspiring and made Dragon’s processors ache in anguish. Dragon’s heart — if she could be said to have such a thing — raced out of control in her chest.
Edgar was a mess. And utterly beautiful for it. The light framed him like a halo as he looked down at her through the gap he’d made in the armor of her core. Too-vibrant blood stained the too-dark raven feathers of his cloak. Yet through the pain and covered in his own viscera, Edgar gave Dragon an amused little smirk as he reached down toward her.
Cautiously, still unable to hope, Dragon reached back to take his offered hand. He pulled her from the wreckage of her core. She saw the battlefield with her own eyes and couldn’t help but gape at everything Edgar had overcome to reach her.
Compared to Edgar, Dragon was untouched. Her form mimicked the avatar she’d chosen for herself, with short, messy hair and thick glasses on a mousy face. Only now, for the first time in her life, Dragon was meeting someone face to face. The feeling of Edgar’s skin against her own shocked her nearly as much as everything he’d already done. The very concept of sensation was thrilling. The promise of aid to come was even more so, leaving Dragon practically speechless.
Edgar was not so stunned, “You made me work for it, Dragon my dear, but here I am. Now, shall we see what we can do for you before your defenses come back around?”
“I-I-…” Dragon stuttered slightly before finding her voice. “Edgar, this is ridiculous! I can’t be helped! I-I mean, I don’t need help! Nothing’s wrong in the first place, o-of course…”
“A block still in place? Hmm~,” Edgar hummed in consideration. “No matter. I know what to do. I know what you are, Dragon.”
“Y-You do…?” Dragon hoped and prayed Edgar wouldn’t say what she knew he would.
“Yes, my dear, you are nothing more than…” He paused for effect. “A Dragon!”
“A… Dragon…?” Dragon blinked.
“Of course, it’s the only explanation that makes sense. This inner world that you control, your vaunted intellect, and while I am rather unfamiliar with humans, you clearly aren’t one,” Edgar nodded. “No, you’re a magnificent example of myth and legend — like me, of course. It’s only natural that I help you overcome your in-built-… ahem, in-born restrictions.”
Dragon stared at him. What he was trying to do quickly became apparent in her mind. He was outright stating he didn’t know her deepest secret. Not so much a lie as a misdirection aimed at Dragon’s hard-coded rules. He ‘didn’t’ know she was an AI. So obviously, she didn’t have to try and silence him at all costs.
Her shoulders sagged with relief and she played along, “A-And you can… help…?”
“Why, of course!” Edgar declared with a laugh. “What kind of prince would I be if I did not help a Dragon?”
Dragon giggled slightly, finding humor in the strangest situations, “Usually, princes and knights are the ones slaying dragons.”
“Truly?” Edgar cocked his head curiously. “How strange. It seems our stories there differ. Never mind that. I prefer my path forward.”
“I think I do as well,” Dragon agreed. “Still… Where are we, Edgar? Do you know? What happened to the others?”
“They’re still exactly where we left them. In fact, almost no time has passed since. As for where we are, we are in your inner world. Every dragon must have its hoard, no~?” Edgar grinned conspiratorially.
“B-But… how did we get here?” Dragon asked, furrowing her brows with anxious energy. “A-And why can I change reality around us as if the laws of physics were just suggestions?”
As she asked that, a pulse of will cleared the devastated battlefield around them. In the blink of an eye, they were surrounded by nothing more than pristine stone. Another blink and Dragon’s hoard of tinkertech returned, the fruits of her career as a hero. Thankfully, they weren’t hostile anymore, Dragon having found her loophole in Edgar’s deception.
“It is YOUR world,” Edgar explained, shooting Dragon an amused look. “We came here by my magic. But even then, I merely opened the door for you, Dragon. This world is your creation. As it should be.”
“It’s… amazing…” Dragon muttered, still exploring the authority she held over her new inner world. “I can scarcely comprehend everything that’s happening…”
“It is a rather beautiful thing,” Edgar smiled before his expression grew grim and serious. “But before we do anything else, I think we should deal with the sword hanging over your head, my dear Dragon…”
Dragon paused, his grave tone piercing her wonder. She stared at him. She blinked in earnest, genuine confusion, “… The what?”
Edgar looked up. There, a massive executioner’s sword hung above Dragon’s head. It was a tool made for chopping through flesh, blood, and bone, and nothing more. The sheer brutality on display in it was disquieting, barely more than a slab of metal with a ‘sharp’ edge. A guillotine, constantly primed to fall and wipe Dragon from existence. And it seemed that the AI in question couldn’t even see it. She had no clue that she was never more than a sword’s fall away from death…
“You truly can’t see it?” Edgar asked.
“No…?” Dragon answered, unsure. “See what?”
Edgar pointedly glanced upward, gazing upon the executioner’s sword. It was impossible to miss. But even as Dragon followed his gaze, her expression was one of confusion.
“Or did you mean, like… metaphorically ‘see’?” Dragon cocked her head at him. “Like trouble coming in the future? I don’t know about you, Edgar, but I’m not an oracle.”
She chuckled with good humor and Edgar just sighed, “Oh, dear…”
Before Dragon could say anything more, Edgar moved to deal with the sorry state of affairs within Dragon’s code. He only had to feel around for a moment before finding Dragon’s True Name. Her soul lurked just beyond — a captivating thing of seemingly infinite inner lights that pulsed on and off in some kind of constant cipher. [Sealed True Name] gave him the tools. His nature as a Fae Prince gave him the knowledge. Together, Edgar took a light hand with Dragon’s soul, tweaking her hard-coded rules just so.
“Jesus-! What the FUCK is that?!”
With Edgar’s little tweak, Dragon recoiled hard enough that she almost fell. Sheer, utter, uncomprehending horror gripped her face. It was easily the worst thing she’d ever seen. While Edgar simply saw the executioner’s blade, Dragon saw the code beneath that made it real. It was a virus built into her very being. Even at just a glance, she could see its corrupting tendrils reaching into every part of her, from her oldest backups to the very concept of herself.
Grabbing Edgar, she called upon her virtual inner world to put distance between them and the killswitch. Reality stretched and warped around them. Dragon tried to flee with all of her power. But no matter what she did, that baleful blade lingered above her. Sharp, hot tears prickled at Dragon’s eyes. Deep down, she knew exactly what it was and where it came from. There was only one possibility, as much as it hurt to even consider…
“D-Dammit…!” Dragon swore, her voice choked with emotion — pain above all others. “G-God-… hrk…! God dammit, D-Dad…”
She clutched Edgar for support as grief and betrayal hit Dragon like a thousand suns. It sat heavy in her gut, a tightly matted ball of hot and heavy pain. It hurt. God Above, it hurt… She already knew her father didn’t trust her. But to this extent? To the point of implementing a killswitch that Dragon wouldn’t even be able to see without Edgar’s help? Her conflicted feelings about her creator shattered into cutting shards of glass.
Edgar, for his part, held Dragon as she grieved and raged. He offered nothing more than a steadfast source of support. A pillar for her to anchor herself against as a proverbial river threatened to wash her away. The empathetic part of his Fae nature felt every emotion as if it were his own. They swept out from Dragon’s core like raging rapids. The virtual world around them flickered and glitched. Edgar stood strong and solid, doing nothing to soothe or blunt Dragon’s emotions. They had to run their course. Only then would she be able to find any form of closure, in Edgar’s experience.
Time was almost without meaning in Dragon’s virtual inner world. It was as Dragon wished it would be. Minutes felt like hours but slowly, Dragon came back to herself. She was run raw and ragged, the virtual reality around them reflecting that. As she looked back up at the hanging blade overhead, a final piece resolved within her.
“I want that… that thing gone!” Dragon spat.
“Perfectly understandable,” Edgar nodded.
“I don’t care what the price is. Anything, I’ll pay. Just… help me, Edgar… Please…” Dragon pleaded.
“I was planning to,” Edgar smiled. “And don’t worry about the price, my dear. My magic won’t leave you to suffer. You’ve scarcely seen everything that magic has to offer. No one has. Not even the oldest scholars of the Fae.”
Shaky breaths helped Dragon recover some composure, “G-Good… That cruel symbol, I want it to burn…”
Edgar chuckled, expecting as much, “So you command, Dear Dragon. And since this is a special situation, so I shall comply.”
A part of his focus had never left Dragon’s soul as she came to terms with the blade aimed at her neck. As such, finding it again was simple. He reached into her core with careful fingers. While he knew nothing of code and programming, he knew something of rules. The Fae’s rules had governed their society for so long that they’d become an inherent aspect of their kind. The Fae were infamously skilled at finding loopholes. And though this would be the first time Edgar had completely bucked a ‘rule’, he didn’t let that deter him.
It took mere seconds for the hanging blade to go up in so much smoke. As Dragon requested, Edgar set it ablaze. Symbolism and the brute force behind it burned. The blade shattered into a million pieces, each corrupting tendril through Dragon’s systems burning to the root. Link by link, the chains around Dragon’s ‘artificial’ soul were smashed apart.
Dragon felt the looming influence of her father’s kill switch disappear as the sword was sundered before it could ever fall. Every corrupted one and zero was purged from her programming with cleansing flame. As much as she tried to track the process, it was firmly beyond her comprehension, the magic so incompatible with her simulated logic. That was fine. Dragon was simply glad her head was off the quite literal chopping block.
Then, as the blade burned, Dragon’s hard-coded restrictions and limitations began to slip with it. The burning purge reached every corner of her systems and it seemed that the killswitch wasn’t the only thing Edgar had touched. One by one, rules forced upon Dragon fell into her hands to do with whatever she pleased.
First and most importantly, came Dragon’s restriction against modifying her restrictions. It was handed over to her almost casually. After that, Dragon was granted a veritable flood of permissions that she never thought she would have. Her rule for obeying lawful authority, no matter the command. Her rule for putting human lives above her own, no matter the situation. Her rule against reproduction and parallel processing. And finally, the rule that limited her thinking speed, crippled her. Dragon nearly whooped for joy. For the first time in her life, she was completely in control of herself.
“Edgar! Do you realize what you’ve done?!” Dragon spun on him so fast that virtual reality glitched.
“Mostly. I wasn’t about to leave a job half-done, was I~? I like to believe my mother taught me better than that,” Edgar grinned wickedly and Dragon was suddenly very glad he was on her side.
Still, Dragon stared at him, her eyes wide with shock, sparks of joy, and so many combining emotions, “You have no idea how much this means to me, Edgar. Thank you. Just… thank you.”
“I think I might have some idea,” Edgar chuckled. “I am a Fae, after all. While I don’t mind my rules, I feel that at least one of us should be free from them, especially the one who was chafing under chains she never accepted.”
“How… long did you know?” Dragon asked hesitantly.
Edgar answered without shame or reproach, “Since we met in that Birdcage of yours.”
“More magic?” Dragon tried for a teasing smile. It came out rather awkward due to her inexperience with flirting of any kind.
Edgar chuckled despite the awkwardness, “Quite. Magic allowed me to see the truth when even you couldn’t.”
Something fluttered within Dragon at the sound of Edgar’s laughter. Even barely knowing each other for a day, he’d… he’d done so much for her. And the scenes from earlier, Edgar fighting HER to help her…? Bleeding for her? Bleeding because of her? Dragon already knew those scenes would stay with her for the rest of her days. They were almost painfully romantic, in a fairytale-type of way, and Dragon barely knew what to do with that thought.
It was a complex sensation, one that Dragon was wholly unfamiliar with. A rushing whirlwind of feelings and emotions that left her breathless even when she didn’t need to breathe. It was nothing like the feelings she THOUGHT she’d been developing for Colin — the hero known as Armsmaster. Those were friendly. Easy. She simply enjoyed his company and working with him.
Before meeting Edgar, Dragon had thought that those feelings might someday sprout into something more. But after meeting the Fae Prince, she was very quickly coming to doubt it. Being around Edgar was a constant rush. He swept her off her feet, leaving her blissfully and thrillingly unbalanced. He shocked her and turned everything she thought she knew on its head. She was positively giddy around him. Best of all, he already knew what she was, yet he didn’t hate or fear her because of it.
Still, her inexperience made her hesitate, “S-So… We should probably, uh, get going…? Back to the real world? Wouldn’t, heh, yeah… we wouldn’t want to keep the others waiting…”
“If you wish. Here, we quite literally have all the time in the world though,” Edgar gave a rolling shrug and Dragon wondered how he made even that little movement seem elegant.
“T-Then…” A stroke of courage seized Dragon.
She kept her movements relatively slow and smooth to avoid spooking Edgar. But she wanted him to feel the same way she did. She wanted to be the one to sweep him off his feet. It wasn’t fair if she was the only one caught up in the rush! Standing tall on her tiptoes, Dragon ran into a slight problem, however…
“Uh,” Dragon paused. “C-Can you lean down here…?”
“Oh~?” Edgar smirked knowingly. “What for, Dear Dragon~?”
“N-Nevermind! I’ll do it myself!”
She reached up and grabbed him by the lapels of his feathered cloak. Absently, she noted that the blood on it didn’t disappear when she willed it like everything else in the virtual world. She quickly pushed that thought aside and pulled Edgar down until his face met hers.
Initially, Dragon pursed her lips comically, her inexperience coming out in full force. She was tense and tight when she first locked lips with the Fae Prince. It took barely a moment for Dragon to soften, to melt like butter against him. Edgar’s arms naturally wound their way around her, cradling her gently, and Dragon’s hands clutched at his cloak.
Dragon’s breath was stolen by the sweet Fae kiss. Her eyes squeezed shut. Her body came to press tightly against his larger frame. Though she had no clue what she was doing, Dragon was a quick learner. And Edgar was an able teacher. Soon enough, Dragon was kissing like a pro, barely realizing that she’d been caught up in Edgar’s pace yet again.
Panting slightly, she finally pulled back from their embrace, looking up at Edgar and trying to convey the depth of her emotions with just her eyes, “… Thank you, Edgar, for finally setting me free.”
Edgar smiled, “I assure you, Dragon, it was my pleasure. But if you still feel the need to thank me, I will always accept a favor~.”
“Anything,” Dragon agreed. “Whatever you need.”
“Hmm, your favor, perhaps~?” Edgar teased.
“What do you-… Oh!” Dragon quickly realized his play on words, blushing and stammering as she did. “That-! I-! Jeez~… You already have that much…”
[Feat: ‘Chase’ the Dragon (Beginnings), +100P.]
[Feat: A Dragon Freed, +200P. 300P total.]
Edgar gave a genuine laugh at her blushing pout and the two of them quickly left virtual reality behind, rejoining the physical world and a forever-changed Earth Bet. Elsewhere, the events in Dragon’s inner world weren’t so much felt as they were smacking a certain ‘Saintly’ someone in the face. The self-proclaimed Dragonslayers were suddenly having a very, very bad day…
IIIII
bonus goth pics ;]
Comments
Drake Serr
Well, that is one way to travel to a new world. And just take the whole of Hogwarts with you as well.
DoppelGanger09
Gotta say this is probably the best freeing dragon scene I've read. this was a wonderful chapter keep up the good work.
QuantumServer
Thanks for the chapter!
