The only exception to that, of course, was healing magic.

  A moment later, the little skeleton froze as the animating magic that let it move about transformed into a message. Tolston’s eyes grew wide—this was much more than a simple message. No, this time, a tiny portal had opened to enable communication.

  Tolston heard a voice which sounded still and calm. It was the voice of a man who expected everyone around him to obey without question.

  “Report,” the voice snapped.

  “I have been unable to determine why the Emperor wants the boy.”

  The voice hissed. “You will not call that imposter ‘Emperor’ in my presence.”

  Tolston felt a cold chill go down his back. He was a legendary level Archmage, yet he knew when he was outclassed. “Of course. Forgive me for misspeaking.”

  “Results are all the apology I need. Now, bring the boy in. He must be questioned. His importance seems out of proportion to everything I’ve found out about him.” The voice paused before continuing. “I can sense one of the gods blocking my divinations. There must be more to him than I can see.”

  “It may take some time… I must follow the rules.”

  “You must obey me, is what you must do. My patience is coming to an end. Perhaps I should find another to offer the gift of youth...”

  “No, no,” Tolston stammered. “I’ll find out why he is so important.”

  “You have three more days. Then, I’ll use… other means. I have the feeling that whatever is special about him will provide me a way back to the throne.”

  Then tiny skeletal body touching his hand turned to dust and Tolston felt the presence leave his mind. That was always eerie, which was saying something given the breadth of his experience.

  He shook his head. What had he gotten himself into? He was a faithful servant of the empire, but it didn’t matter to him who sat upon the throne, only that the empire was safe. If he could gain a new lease on life in the process of protecting the empire then all the better.

  Chapter 1 - Return

  When I saw the gates of the university looming in the distance, I thought back on the past few days. Cami and I were only just returning from meeting Draconis—or at least the current Draconis. The red wyrm was both more and less than I had thought he would be—which mostly had to do with how fat he was. Apparently, red dragons had no shame in how much sloth ruled them.

  Despite that, the encounter had been enlightening… on many different levels. Not only did I actually get to try out my new mature adult body, but I got to kick in the wings of a red—one of Draconis’ offspring. When I used that phrase with Cami, she seemed confused. I soon learned that the human equivalent was that we ‘kicked his butt’.

  Humans fixated on their fatty backsides, for some reason, but I didn’t argue with her.

  We landed near the village that I had saved from the Baloth a few months back. The people there were only too glad to see me, and I was happy to receive praise and food offerings from the villagers. The young humans, especially, pleased me. I considered it almost a sacred duty, on my part, to teach them proper respect for dragonkind while they were still young and could form good habits. After all, they didn’t have a human dream to teach them such things—poor creatures that they were.

  Speaking of sacred, I learned that the village had changed their name from… well, from whatever it had been before. I didn’t really care what they used to call it… East-something-or-other. Now, though, the village had renamed themselves ‘the Blue Shrine’. Some of the villagers had even given up worshiping their gods, pointing out that not one of the divine had come to their aid in their time of need. Instead, they began worshipping dragons, specifically blue dragons. I’d been their savior, after all.

  It was all quite flattering and a little bit awkward to have them bowing their heads as they asked me to bless their babies. It was worth it, though. I could only imagine how much this must annoy the gods. For that reason alone, I was only too happy to accommodate them. After two days of this, though, we needed to get going.

  Cami was worried about her exams at the university.

  When I had suggested that she simply skip them, she had insisted that she couldn’t do that. Oh, well, I supposed this was one of the lesser annoyances of having a bonded companion. The villagers were happy to lend Cami two horses—and even had the decency not to ask why she needed horses when she had a dragon to ride on.

  A few miles into the forest, I transformed back into my human form and we began the trek back to the university. It was frustrating, after being able to—literally—stretch my wings, to have to be back in this squishy body. I wasn’t willing to give up on it… not yet, at least.

  Draconis clearly didn’t know everything. And if the current leader of dragonkind could be wrong, then perhaps others could be wrong, as well. Humans had things they could teach dragons.

  Simply recalling Lisella’s stats told me that I needed more magical items. Already, the ones I had obtained were making a difference; they added to my power. But what if I could get more? Though I supposed my minions could create them. It was why I’d been so pleased that Cami had recruited the half-dwarf smith and human enchanter. I just would need to come up with the materials.

  The thought of spending gold for such things made me sick to my stomach. Perhaps that was why none of the dragons in my memories had used magical items. Still, it seemed stupid. More power was the surest path to more gold.

  There were other things I could do to enhance my power, like finding minions who could use magic to buff me in battle. Perhaps that old human alchemist had some potions which could do the same thing. Even better, I could get her to teach Cami—or even to teach me—how to make such elixirs.

  My mind raced with the possibilities.

  After encountering a leader of the eldritch horrors, I felt an even greater need for power—especially if I was to fulfill my role as Pact Warden. I still wasn’t sure what the Pact was, or what balance I was supposed to maintain exactly, but it wasn’t lost upon me that both the gods and the horrors wanted Ileria. Still, it was we dragons who actually lived here, and that made it our world.

  I needed to think on that, but before I knew it, we were at the gates.

  As we rode through the gates, Cami spoke into my mind, “Did you see how the guards acted?”

  “Uh… like guards?”

  “No. Something strange is going on. They wouldn’t make eye contact, despite verifying our identities twice. That was definitely not normal.”

  “I don’t know what it could mean…” I shook my head. I must be missing something here. “But you followed my lead when it came to interacting with dragons; I will endeavor to do the same for you regarding humans. Should I prepare for an attack?”

  “I don’t believe anyone would actually attack us, not here. We may be in trouble, if someone noticed our absence,” Cami replied.

  Just then, I saw Lisella walking across the open area, which the students called the quad. She was quite a ways from us, but it was clear she must have paid someone to let her know when we returned. Or perhaps she had a magical means of knowing we were close. That could be why the guards were acting strangely.

  I was about to say as much to Cami, when the ground under our feet lit up with mystical symbols.

  Pale blue light took the shape of runes in a wide circle around us. Then the runes began to spin. Suddenly, it felt like the pull of the gravity had increased by ten times. I continued to walk forward, though, as I wasn’t going to let such a minor inconvenience affect me.

  Even Cami shrugged it off.

  But when the runes began to spin faster, Cami fell to one knee. Without even thinking about it, I scooped her up in my arms, ensuring she didn’t fall any further. Stepping forward once more, a small pain in my head was followed by a notification.

  You have resisted a Daze effect.

  Magic resistance is insufficient to completely resist epic level spell, though the mental effects have been resisted.

  I growled in anger. My first thought was that the Emperor had betrayed us. He was one degree above an epic level, something or another. Even the adventurers didn’t seem to know what he could do.

  There would be time for settling that later. I shifted Cami into a more comfortable position in my arms and started walking forward again. The runes sped up once more, the blue light growing brighter still as the pull of gravity on my human form increased yet again.

  It still wasn’t enough to stop me, though I worried what it might do to Cami.

  I saw Lisella sprinting across the quad towards me, though the air appeared to be distorted by the light and the spinning circle of runes. I could see the flows of magic empowering the runes, but they were impossibly complex. It wasn’t hard to believe this was an epic level spell.

  It seemed like Lisella was yelling something, but I might as well have been underwater for all that I could hear what it was. Something flashed in her hands and a moment later, Galbrecht was running beside her.

  That was a cool trick. I’d like to be able to summon a human to do my bidding whenever I wanted to. I took two more steps. Two more steps is all that it would take for me to reach the edge of the circle. One step, now. I felt another mental assault, but I kept going.

  You have resisted Fear effect.

  You have partially resisted a Sickening effect.

  For all the complexity and power in this magic, it wasn’t really hurting me. Maybe ‘epic’ didn’t mean quite the same thing to humans that it did to dragons.

  When I reached the edge of the circle, the runes all flared red and a wall of red light sprang into being, forming a barrier around the perimeter of the spell’s area of effect. I extended one hand, but felt resistance when I tried to push through.

  You have resisted a Pain effect.

  I pushed harder against the barrier.

  You have resisted a Greater Pain effect.

  The intensity of the light grew. I pulled my hand back as my flesh started to smoke. The red barrier didn’t quite feel like fire, more like a super intense light—I couldn’t think of any other words to describe it.

  With a snarl, I jerked my hand back. I’d only taken a few HP of damage because I reacted so quickly. Whenever I reached out to push against the barrier, it seemed to grow stronger.

  A deep male voice called out, “Just stop, lad… before you injure yourself.”

  A surge of defiance rumbled deep within me. I was going to walk through this barrier. I knew it would hurt, but I would survive.

  I clamped my jaw down as a primal force within me tried to growl out a challenge. There were words—'Draconis’ among them—which wanted to be said, but I knew that would not be wise. I wasn’t willing to let my instincts rule me. I would not declare myself to be something I didn’t yet understand, not if I still had any control.

  The only problem was that I didn’t know if Cami could survive me walking through this curtain of light. I wouldn’t endanger her just for my stubborn pride. I looked out through the barrier and saw that, all over the campus as far as I could see, the students who had been there were now sprawled on the ground—either asleep or unconscious.

  I didn’t know or care which.

  A man in red and gold robes appeared, facing away from us. In one arm, he held a raised staff. He was gesturing at Lisella and Galbrecht who were almost to the circle.

  I could see angry expressions upon their faces, though I couldn’t hear their words. What was clear, however, was that they were arguing with this man. Could he be the Emperor?

  No, he didn’t seem like an Emperor. I cast Identify through the wall.

  Archmage Tolston

  Level: 26

  Class: Runic Archmage

  Further information is unavailable due to the target’s legendary level.

  Somehow, that made more sense. I was glad to see that the Emperor hadn’t so directly betrayed me. I still didn’t believe he could be trusted—the only human who I could truly rely upon was in my arms.

  I felt a rage growing within me. If I transformed, this spell would shatter, and then we’d see how a legendary mage fared against a mature adult dragon.

  Galbrecht waved a hand at me. Something about the look on his face led me to think that he knew exactly what I was thinking; he urged me not to. When I took a step back, he nodded his head as though to show me respect. Then, his focus returned to the man in red and gold robes.

  They were clearly shouting, now, but Galbrecht started walking closer to him. Meanwhile, Lisella began casting, and I recognized some of the magic—she was buffing Galbrecht. They were going to fight the headmaster of the academy.

  I turned and laid Cami down on the ground. She should be safe, given that I made sure she was far from the burning red light at the edge of the circle. I would stay beside her to ensure she would not be harmed.

  I wished I had a snack as I sat down cross-legged to watch what would unfold. I think Cami said she liked something called popped corn. It sounded strange to me, but something told me it would be perfect for a moment like this.

  Tolston waved his staff in a wide arc and I watched as the magic which had woven itself around Galbrecht suddenly disappeared. Well, all but one spell, that is… which I noted was a little different. It was likely one of the spells which Lisella had only had because of her connection with Miseria. Apparently, divine spells trumped whatever the headmaster had used to dispel the other magic.

  They tried talking some more—but, once again, I couldn’t hear their words. That was really starting to annoy me. I wish they’d just get on with the fighting. This would be the best entertainment I’d had since I’d arrived at the university.

  Without warning, a tiny sliver of wood flashed through the air at an impossible speed. A faintly glowing shield snapped into being around the Archmage, but I recognized the wooden sliver as one of Liam’s piercing arrows. His arrow was wrapped in magic that fought against the shield. I wondered why I hadn’t seen a spell form prior to the shield activating, but it didn’t matter for the moment.

  All pretense of talking it out ended, and the fight was on.

  Chapter 2 - Confrontation

  I wanted to hear what was going on. I leaned forward and reached my arm out just shy of the barrier, trying to modify the magical weave. With a growl, I realized I couldn’t touch the magic. Seeing it and affecting it were very different things. No matter how much I tried to alter it, I couldn’t.

  The system responded then, as it seemed to do so often of late.

  New DKP option available.

  Do you wish to see it?

  I, of course, jumped at the chance.

  Anti-magic Pulse - This is not a spell, but an innate ability of dragonkind. It is normally tied only to those dragons who have undergone a Mind evolution, though. As you have not undergone a Mind evolution, the cost to obtain this innate ability will be 25% greater than normal, and the power will be 25% weaker. This pulse extends your full magical resistance beyond your body as a counter against any magic which has already been cast, magic from an enchantment, or magic as it is actively being cast.

  Note: At a sufficient level, this ability can affect even divine magic.

  DKP Cost: 63

  Do you wish to obtain this ability?

  I choked on having to spend that much DKP, but I wanted out of this trap. Even watching the fight wasn’t enough to distract from that goal.

  Outside the barrier, Tolston launched some type of ice spell which pushed all the others back and covered them in ice. The adventurers were breaking free, but it brought the fight to a halt for a moment. Interesting, I thought, the Archmage wasn’t pressing his advantage.

  I felt the expenditure of DKP and then a new power filled me. I cursed as knowledge filled my mind from the Dragon Dream. I could only use the ability once per day, and the cost for raising the skill went up sharply. Each level I increased the skill would enable me to use it an additional time per day.

  Even more frustrating, was when I understood exactly how it worked, I knew it would only give me a 50% chance to affect magic not cast against my body—since that was my basic magic resistance. Now, it was also the chance I had to delete any magical effect—up to the Ninth Tier. Well, almost… since the power was reduced by 25% from my normal chances, it would only be a 37.5% chance. Even after I leveled it up, it would remain weak against legendary spells, and weaker still against divine spells.

  Despite all these limitations and constraints, it was better than nothing. I studied the spell intently, focusing on one thing. If I couldn’t get out of the barrier with any reliability, I hoped at least to be able to hear what was going on.