Magical Paragon (+100%) - All your spells and magical abilities are now +100% more effective than before and any beneficial magic cast upon you by another will automatically be 100% more powerful. Further, your mana regeneration will increase by 100%. If you ever leave the world of Ileria, your mana regeneration will drop to zero and all your spells will only be 50% as effective.

  The Elements Heed My Call (+50%) - While on Ileria, you gain 50% passive resistance to all elemental attacks. Further, the cast time, cool-down, and mana cost of any elemental spell is reduced by 50%.

  Draconic Form - You may transform into any extinct dragon type of the same age category as your Dragon Monarch. You will possess all the abilities of that dragon and retain your own magical abilities. Your Mind stat will remain yours while your Strength, Agility, and Durability stats will become that of the dragon form you have taken.

  Duration: 15 minutes

  Cool-down: 24 hours

  Note—If your Dragon Monarch has the Scale Evolution, the cool-down is cut in half and the duration is doubled.

  Draconic Roar - You are caught up in the rage of your Dragon Monarch. All offensive abilities are temporarily increased by 200%. This is applied after all other benefits are calculated. However, all defensive abilities are only 50% as effective.

  Duration: 30 seconds

  Cool-down: 1 hour

  Note—You must be within 10 miles of your Dragon Monarch.

  Draconic Elevation - All spells related to your dragon monarch’s elemental type, including storm magic, are automatically elevated by one Tier at no cost. All spells related to elements which your dragon monarch does not possess are reduced by one Tier. With further concentration, you can increase the Tier of your elemental type spells by a total of 1 Tier if you increase the mana cost by 100%, after all other effects. This effect may be applied multiple times. If your Monarch possesses the Mind evolution, this ability will be twice as effective.

  I Go So You Need Not - As your dragon monarch is prohibited from using teleportation magic, you may use any teleportation spell with no cost, without having it on your spell list, and without regard to any divine limitations, so long as you are aware of the spell’s existence.

  Cool-down: 6 hours

  Note—If your Dragon Monarch has the Wing Evolution, the cool down will be cut in half.

  Draconic Enhancement - Your connection to your dragon monarch creates a resonance within your magic. Any beneficial spell you cast upon your dragon monarch has its effect and duration increased by 100%. The same applies to exalted minions, but at 75% and at 50% for minions. If your dragon monarch possesses the Mind evolution, this ability will be twice as effective.

  Borrowed Spell - You may cast any spell which is known by your dragon monarch without affecting their ability to cast it.

  Mana Conduit - Because of the connection which exists between you and your dragon monarch, your total mana is doubled.

  Draconic Mantle - You may store elemental attacks similar to that of your dragon monarch within a spell matrix around your body. You may store one for each elemental type your dragon monarch controls. In order to recharge the matrix, you must be in physical contact with your dragon monarch.

  Exalted Minion Health 2 - You possess an upgraded version of the health enjoyed by exalted minions, which is itself an upgrade from that of normal minions. You are effectively immune to all diseases and poisons. Those which originate from an extra-planar source will be turned back upon the source, which will lose any immunity it may possess to said source. Your lifespan increase is boosted by an extra 10% above and beyond the lifespan boost granted exalted minions.

  Storms Voice - Due to the synergy between your former class and your dragon monarch’s class, you may duplicate any of your dragon monarch’s class specific abilities. You may also control the weather within a 25-mile radius. This ability will grow as your class levels.

  Chapter 35 - Results

  I discussed the issues facing us with my bonded and new minions. We had less than a month till the gods would be able to contact Ileria directly again, but almost a full year until they could directly intervene. The same went for the horrors, though I was beginning to believe they were simply two sides of the same gold coin.

  One was the imprinted side, only slightly more palatable than the other raw side.

  I could also admit that while my kind were undoubtedly the most powerful and most intelligent race upon Ileria that opened us up to another type of weakness. Dragons hardly needed to form long-term plans or strategies. Why would we? If an enemy came to face us, we killed them. If someone had something we wanted, we took it. Our urges were never more than a short step away from reality.

  In fact, as I thought back through what I had experienced in the Dragon Dream, I realized it was worse than that. Several of my ancestors had faced challenges before—and I don’t just mean the blue Draconis. Wasnera had wanted to exterminate every giant on the entire planet, but the task was more time consuming than she’d expected, so she eventually gave up. Other times, dragons had wanted to control a land, but found that the humans, elves, orcs, or dwarves on it were too settled in and the risk of uprooting them all too great. Dragons could die.

  Part of being a purely physical being was knowing that there was an end to this journey. That there was an end added value to life. Viewing things through a different lens, I saw how my kind often gave up on some goal or objective. They buried the desire deep within themselves and moved on to other concerns.

  Boredom saved more cows from dragons than all the knights in the world.

  I couldn’t afford to be bored, no matter how much the humans around me droned on about strategy, supply lines, establishing a base of operations, or scouting missions. It all seemed rather silly to me, but I couldn’t let my distaste for the minutiae keep me from moving forward. The creation of Scale Nation, no matter how overwhelming of a task, would happen—or dragon kind would not be restored to their proper place.

  I fell back on a tried-and-true dragon technique, one which I now believe was originally conceived of by Tiamat—delegation. This had to be the true value of minions.

  “Enough,” I said, allowing my voice to roll out like thunder.

  Everyone stopped talking and turned to stare at me. By this point, the rest of the leaders amongst my minions were here —for some reason, the term ‘middle management’ seemed appropriate, as they served as an appropriate buffer between my august self and the rest of my minions… though I doubted I’d require them to submit TPS Reports.

  This included Namis and one of his druids, as well as Sir Michael and Sir Thomas, the leaders of my knights. Captain William, the commander of my infantry and bowmen, as well as Bob my chief builder, and Amos, the commander of my small navy, were here as well.

  “Cami and I can’t lose our focus. We are going to work on restoring as many dragon souls as we can in the next two weeks. When we aren’t doing that, we will do some training—training that we unfortunately haven’t had time for until now. The rest of you have two weeks to scout out the situation in the desert and come up with a plan. Vox will keep you informed about how many dragons you can expect to join us when we head south. That is all.”

  As I turned to leave, a dozen voices all spoke up at once. They were so loud I could barely hear Cami laughing due to all their babbling. I roared at the sky again and they fell silent.

  “Cassandra is in charge on the island,” I explained. “She’ll act as my major domo with Bob, Emilio, and Daggin assisting her. Galbrecht will be in charge of the forces that will go south—with Modessa and Rizal as his lieutenants, since they are also exalted minions. You will all obey them or become chew toys for the freed dragons. Sir Michael, Sir Thomas, and Captain William?”

  Three heads nodded as one.

  “As my Kevin, Stuart and Bob—Bob the Captain and not Bob the Builder—you’ll work with my exalted minions to determine which troops will remain here to protect the horde and which will become part of the army.”

  I turned from the knights who were asking each other which of them was Kevin to Namis and Amos. “You two will be responsible both for bringing the refugees here as well as for working with the exalted minions to determine which of them will settle here and which in Scale Nation. Am I understood?”

  They slowly answered in the affirmative as Cami laughed softly in the background. I was glad she could enjoy their sudden discomfort as much as I did. Slowly, they all got moving while Cami and I prepared to fly back up to my hoard. We were both tired after the strange ordeal and needed a nap.

  “Vox,” I called out as Cami clambered up my foreleg to spring up to her preferred perch on my shoulders just forward of my wings, “let the freed dragons all meet Matilda and then have a dozen volunteers ready when the sun reaches its zenith tomorrow.”

  “Yes, my King.”

  I was already flying, so I didn’t bother with a reply. My gold called to me and I needed to rest. Once I had settled into a comfortable position with the warmth that innately existed inside my gold warming me, I drifted off. Right as I was on the cusp between the sleeping and waking world, I pondered an odd question. When had I become so driven?

  I should have told my minions to take care of things and not to bother me with the details. What kind of dragon set a schedule that required him to wake at a specific time for his minions? Ugh… what was I becoming?

  That was the last thing I remembered before all that meaning was lost to me.

  The Dragon Dream came to me, but it flashed before me with so many images that I couldn’t capture all of them. Only a few lingering glimpses remained with me when I woke. I recalled seeing myself looking in through the window of a high tower. One of my five heads had pushed inside it, but the rest of my bulk couldn’t fit. If the tower hadn’t been magically reinforced, I doubted it would have held my weight.

  The words which I spoke evaded me, though I remembered speaking to an old human with a long, white beard. He showed me his magic, and I absorbed the details. My understanding grew and eventually, I accepted a mind evolution. My children were missing out, there was so much more to know, yet I worried that the human would soon die.

  Their lives were so short. I needed to find a way to keep him around.

  The next image placed me deep in the forest, where I felt a new magic. It was different from human magic and far different from dragon magic. I was surrounded by a great circle of elves who all sought to pour their magic into a singular great work. Many gave their lives for it, but they shaped a working which spread into the roots of the trees as the forest became something more. I declared this place theirs and swore to protect them, even while a nagging worry hit my mind.

  Then I saw dwarves crafting wonders. They made machines that dug into the ground faster than even a dragon could. With it, they drew forth the golden bones of Ileria and filled my hoard faster than ever. Even with five heads and ten eyes, I couldn’t keep watch on all of them. Other dwarves worked with some of my children, but greed soon caused a rift between them.

  The final image that stuck with me was of a great battlefield. I had only experienced defeat once in recent times. It still stung that I’d been driven from the human world—though they’d paid a great price for their victory as I scorched their world and ripped the magic from it. Theirs would be a slow, lingering death, as their world eventually lost the ability to support life.

  What were thousands of years though to a dragon empress?

  Now, though, I was with the most faithful of my minions. The orcs valued might and honor, traits which were—of course—best typified by my children. That thought sent a spike of disquiet running through me. Some of my children had acted less than honorably lately.

  I felt something which lesser beings might have called shame. It couldn’t be that, though, because I was a dragon. But I didn’t understand why my children were fighting with one another. Not only was Ileria massive, but there were other worlds they could spread amongst. I’d paved the path, but none of them wanted to follow.

  The orcs lacked the weapons of dwarves, which were so sharp they could pierce the scales of a lesser dragon. Their magic lacked the refinement of the elves, nor did they have the raw power of the great human archimages. Their lives were the shortest, but they knew war.

  In these fields, I was practicing with them—learning how to fight a horde. I was determined never to be turned away again by lesser foes, though their numbers be overwhelming.

  Each of the dreams confused me. And though I longed to experience more of them, they seemed locked to me. I was shunted from one to the next, along with dozens of other images which I couldn’t recall, before I woke.

  When I awoke, I found Cami waiting for me. I peered deeply into her with Soul Seer before turning the ability on myself. Any damage that had been caused by the soul sliver that had been taken as a seed for Matilda’s soul, as well as any strain Cami’s soul had experienced, was gone. My soul appeared to be fully healed and whole.

  Cami ran her hand over my scales. “I didn’t ask yesterday, but are you sure you want to do a dozen in a single day?”

  I didn’t answer but she could feel my concern.

  Cami continued, “I know you’re worried about the dragons and want to restore them… and I’m aware you feel we have limited time to do this, but we have to ensure you remain in tiptop shape. I have a feeling that some of the other dragons are going to challenge you once we leave here.”

  A growl rumbled deep in my chest. I would meet and crush any challengers.

  “It…” She paused. “It just feels like things have been too quiet, even with the chaos that happened in Forlay.”

  I understood what she meant. “Rushing feels like such a human thing, and I don’t like it. But I can’t shake the sense that if we don’t establish ourselves before the gods and horrors can return, that we’ll regret it.”

  “You mean because Matilda is not bound by the Pact?”

  I nodded. “In part… but also because I get the feeling that the situation is more complicated than we comprehend. I believe both sides are going to attempt to enforce their agendas.”

  Another growl deep in my chest caused Cami’s hand to vibrate on my scales.

  “Ileria belongs to dragons and we must restore that, not just the souls of domesticated dragons.”

  She didn’t respond for a while and we stayed still. Tens of minutes past and I heard Vox outside the lair with the volunteers, but didn’t rush to greet them. These moments of stillness seemed all too rare, and I wasn’t going to lose this one. Eventually, though, duty called.

  When we walked out of the lair, I saw twelve freed dragons standing behind Vox. They varied in size and color, but all were black, green, or white.

  “No blues or reds?” I asked.

  “None have been freed and joined us, but I still have more to gather. You should know that the island is pretty much bursting at the seams with over a hundred freed dragons,” Vox replied.

  I checked my status. Sure enough, Vox had overseen them giving me their oaths.

  All stats, draconic abilities, and control of the magic of Ileria are boosted by a total of 26% now. You have progressed toward accessing the Horn Evolution.

  26/100 dragons have pledged their fealty to you. Prismatic Evolution is still missing. (Vox, Matilda, Seli, Grig, Hano, and 104 domesticated dragons).

  Note: Domesticated dragons only count for a fraction of a true dragon.

  It was progress. I was glad to see that the system had counted the hatchlings. It hadn’t before, but perhaps they needed names. It was an interesting thought, but one I would have to ponder—later.

  For now, we got down to work.

  Cami got better each time we completed the process, but after ten hours and ten slivers of my soul being cut away to make Soul Seeds, we had to call it a day. She’d made great gains during the day and I even got some upgrades, but that was far from the end of it. For two solid weeks, we spent a minimum of ten hours each day working on restoring souls to the freed dragons.

  By the end of it, we’d created a total of 149 new true dragons. Each was affected by gaining a soul in slightly different ways, but there were a few commonalities. They all were recognized by the system as dragons of their color, though their race included the modifiers of Demi-Touched and Pactless. They all grew in size.

  And while the young were mostly Adolescents or Young Adults, the ones who had been considered full grown all ended up in the late stages of the Adult tier. There were a few into the mid-stage of Mature Adult, though none were more than 50% towards Elder.

  Despite their growth, they were all still runts—at least by dragon standards.

  Cami gained a great deal from all her efforts:

  Your bonded has gained 3 levels in Soul Forger-Soul Surgeon.

  Current level: 11.

  Soul Surgery ability has upgraded to level 4.