Sneaking

Ralf Tornstrew looked at the Spatial Pouch he'd picked up, subtly hiding it in his robes. He'd cast a quick spell, trying to find clues near the Titan's cell, and it'd popped up, hidden under the stairs. His eyes flashed, his visage on the surface grim.

He was currently in the underground sector of the City Guardhouse, which also functioned as a secure jail for criminals with great strength. There hadn't been an escapee from here in dozens of years.

A couple other guardsmen could be seen, moving about the scene trying to find clues.

He'd gone through all the effort to threaten those Aeth merchants and have that Titan arrested, purely so he could get ahold of its pure bloodline, but in the end, it had somehow escaped.

This smacked of something dangerous. It was unnatural that a Titan that didn't even practice magic would have such capabilities.

Ralf was nearly 400 years old. Not old compared to some of the monsters of the Family, but considering the average vampire lived for 600 years, his age was up there. The only reason he didn't look decrepit was because he was a Grandmaster Class Wizard.

He didn't get this old by being stupid.

'Does he have allies that I don't know of?' The only thing he could think up. There was no other way the Titan escaped, realistically. They'd found signs of the cuffs melted by some type of intense flame.

Also, why did it leave its Spatial Pouch, if it was able to escape? A possibility flared up in his mind.

For some types of Space Magic, teleportation and opening portals to escape places was possible. Some of the lower level spells didn't allow one to bring any magic objects with you. A Spatial Pouch was a prime example.

He'd already searched through the Spatial Pouch before. It was full of Magic Herbs, many that he didn't even recognize. An exotic variety, but nothing he noticed was super valuable.

Family law dictated that everything was to be returned to the prisoner, so he'd been helpless at pilfering away the pouch before.

Now, however, he didn't mind holding on to it.

He frowned intensely as he considered the possibility that the Titan had hidden allies he was unaware of.

It was possible his scheme to threaten those merchants could be unveiled. If Vyers learned of it, it was the same thing as the City Lord learning, and he was already not in the good graces of the City Lord.

Should he kill them? No, it was too difficult to kill someone with an established residence in the city and get away with it. Both of the merchants were registered to the City, and their death would be investigated.

'Damn.' He'd seriously miscalculated.

'Wait!' Hope lit up in him. That Titan had gone out of his way to save those merchants when they were attacked on the World Bridge, according to the Aethmen. It was possible he'd seek out the merchants now.

All he needed to do was order some of his men among the guardsmen to follow him, ostensibly to protect the Aethmen. As long as the Titan was recaptured or killed on record, everything would be fine. As of right now, they'd lost all traces of the Titan.

He smiled grimly, and began walking upstairs.

..

Dorian panted quietly, lying down on top of a roof. He had changed back into his Titan form, though not willingly. He could only maintain his condensed form for a brief period of time, and he could only suppress his growth, when in his Myyr Dragon form, for a limited period of time as well. Maintaining either cost a great deal of energy.

The stronger your form, the more energy you required to suppress it to a previous Growth Stage.

He was naked, once more, his clothes left behind inside his Spatial Pouch. He sighed, hoping he'd be able to get it back eventually. He'd tucked it under the stairs when he left, but wasn't sure if it would last. He hadn't had many options.

It was his own fault for letting himself get captured. Trusting in the honesty of others was a mistake.

He was about a mile and a half away from the stone prison he'd been in, atop a residential roof. The day had faded to night outside, the darkness lit up by a single moon, far above, giving the world an eerie, dim gleam.

He was exhausted, and just wanted to eat some food and then sleep. His stomach rumbled, however, unfortunately reminding him that that wasn't something he could do right now.

He began suppressing his Titan form, feeling his body shift back to that of a small child's.

He frowned as he felt his form shift. He immediately released it.

-

Dorian - Soul Status

Soul Stage: Grandmaster Class (Middle)

Health: Perfect

Energy: 35/212

-

Even though his Growth Stage wasn't very high, his normal Titan form was still a Master Class beast. Suppressing it to the first stage took about 1 unit of energy every 5 minutes. It would sap him dry if he tried to maintain it.

Further, Titans weren't exactly a common species in this city. A Titan child would stick out like a sore thumb.

He needed to eat and regain his energy.

As he considered this, an idea ran through his head.

Who said he had to stay as a Titan?

-

-Bloodlines Stored-

Red Salamander

Forested Ancient Snake

Hollow Lizard (Degraded)

Brown Treasure Clam

Myyr Dragon

Golem Wolf

Black Mire Wolf

White Rain Wolf

Virulent Wolf

True Vampire

Titan

Human

Great Black Bear

-

If he switched forms now, the energy in his soul would maximize that form. He'd already gotten the Condense Ability, the only reason he'd stay as a Titan would be to finish its growth so he could use its bloodline to combine with others.

That was a thought for another time, however.

What would be the best form to choose, in a populated city like this?

He smiled.

'Ausra, evolve me into a human.'

…

-

-Absorbing Human bloodline-

-

-Body Reconstruction in progress-

-

-

-Human - Growth Stage: (1/2) Human Child -

Growth Progress – 4,072/300 -

-

'After Evolving, your soul requires a short period of time to adapt to a new form. Because your soul is at the Grandmaster Class, this adaptation period is reduced to 6 hours. The stronger your soul, the less the adaptation period.' Ausra's voice rang out in his head.

Dorian's body morphed into that of a small, naked human being. He had short blonde hair and a cute face, looking as if he was 5 or 6 years old.

The very image of a random street urchin.

"Only two Growth Stages?" Dorian shook his head. Humans truly had the worst of it, bloodline wise. The fact that they were able to grow powerful enough to dominate the 30,000 Realms as much as they did was an incredible achievement already.

His powerful Soul boosted the strength of his form. As he stood up on the roof, he moved his arms to the left and right, feeling a certain level of power in them. He was about at the level of an Earth Class beast, he figured. A punch from him could crack a tree, but not break it cleanly in half.

The City guard would be scrambling around looking for an escaped Titan. Who would pay attention to a random street urchin?

6 hours in this form was more than enough. His eyes flashed as he looked around.

He was in a small neighborhood within the city. Several dozen residences made of white stone bring, with slanted roofs and wooden windows, spread out around him. Most of them were closed up for the night, the inhabitants asleep.

He moved forward, his stomach rumbling as he guiltily decided to pilfer the kitchens of a few residences.

..

A half hour later.

Dorian had found a set of loose, plain clothes to wear. A small grey shirt, and a tight pair of black pants. He'd rubbed a bit of dirt and dust on the clothes, making them look old and used. They didn't perfectly fit, but they were more than enough.

He'd managed to find a large store of cheese and meat in one of the residences, and eaten his fill. He then slowly began making his way through the dark city, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, ducking from alley to alley as he stuck to the shadows.

The city, at night, was a relatively peaceful one. There were patrols of guards through certain areas, and a strict curfew enforced. These patrols were easy enough to dodge, however, as long as you didn't stick solely to the streets.

It was Dorian's first time really exploring the city on his own. In the daytime, he'd just followed a couple streets to the north side of the city and gotten a bite to eat, after visiting a few of those Blood Magic shops.

It felt oddly surreal to Dorian.

As he scaled a wall and climbed upon a house, he felt like he was in an action movie, dashing around in the night.

Dorian was careful to avoid any areas of the city that looked rich or wealthy. There was no telling if there were magic traps or anything of that nature protecting some houses.

Eventually, after quite a bit of trial and error, Dorian found his way towards where the merchant couple lived, the directions they gave him coming in handy.

The Aeth merchants lived in a small, residential neighborhood in the city. They were considered a relatively wealthy family, but only to a certain extent. When compared to the true nobles in this city, many of whom lived in grand palaces or mansions, they could only be considered middle class.

Their home was a large, two-story house made from a type of luxurious teak. It had a solid dark blue roof and a few decorative windows. Many of the other homes in this area of the city were of a similar nature.

Instead of approaching directly, however, Dorian carefully scampered around the area near their house, looking everything over.

The guards in the city most likely thought he'd try to shore up somewhere and would be hiding away.

It was possible that they might think he would try to take revenge on the merchants, if they honestly believed the accusations against him.

And, sure enough, as Dorian snuck around, he saw a few armored figures, hiding atop a couple nearby rooftops. When he noticed them, he paid careful attention to not step any closer, hiding out in the distance.

He began to mentally mark the locations where he saw each guard, keeping a tally.

As he scanned them all, Dorian saw a figure he recognized.

Even in the dark, where only the slim moonlight lit up the area, Dorian could still make out the imperious figure of the same vampire Wizard that had grabbed onto one of Jeriah, forcing her, and Clarence, to lob accusations at him.

The Wizard was sitting down with his hands folded, patiently watching the Aeth Merchant's home.

Dorian's eyes hardened at the sight. He saw several other guards near the vampire, all staking out the residence. He then smiled, and settled down on a different house's roof, a slanted one that had a small cubby, perfect for a small body to hide on.

When he'd lived in the forest, there were several times he'd sat still for hours, hunting down Red Salamanders or other small prey.

Patience was a virtue that he did not lack.

The Wizard would need to sleep sometime.

His eyes carefully watched the Wizard as he began to wait, resting his tired body but staying alert.

..

Meanwhile, many miles away from Dorian, across a large gap in the oceans of nothingness that spread around Taprisha, another World Bridge could be seen, connecting down to another tall island.

This was the World Bridge from the Lesser World Bantor.

This iteration of a World Bridge was a long, drawling forest, with a path cut through it for travel.

The island the Bridge connected to housed the nearly 30 miles wide City of Morn, one of the 23 City States on Taprisha. It was a sprawling city with a large population. Another island quite close to the one that housed Morn contained a huge Darkiron mine spreading more than a hundred miles deep, making the City of Morn one of the most popular places for Wizards that studied anything relating to Earth Magic to live on Taprisha.

About two thousand miles up the World Bridge that connected to the City State of Morn, the figure of a large, glowing dragon could be seen, flying high in the sky of the World Bridge. The dragon gave off a near blinding light as it flew, its wings blasting out with a bright orange gleam.

Occasionally, the scattered space at the edge of the World Bridge would send out small spatial tears towards the dragon. These tears would slam into the dragon and then fizzle out, having little effect.

If one looked closely at this dragon, through the bright light its wings emitted, they would notice that the body of the dragon seemed almost incorporeal. Its snarling, visage, its huge wings, its long tail. This drake was nearly 50 meters long, with a massive wingspan.

Orange, luminescent flames seemed to fall off behind the dragon each time it flapped its wings, leaving a trail of fire high in the sky.

Out of its snarling visage, if one listened close, a dim, drawling tune could be heard, sung by a voice with a deep, riveting timbre.

"Oh, weeeeelll, fire is fun and fire is free! What do I love, why it's fire for me!"

"The closest thing to god is flame! And that is why I spread my name!"

"Born the eleventh, with the figure god devised! The prettiest flame that god had prized!"

"To hunt for perfection, the ultimate flame imagined! That's why I will find…" Its voice trailed off.

The dragon seemed to freeze in mid-air, its eyes opened wide in anger,

*ROOOOOAAAAAAAAAR*

It let out a massive roar, unleashing a furious wave of orange fire on the forests below. Thousands of trees exploded into a storm of shrapnel and flames, melting into the rocky earth of the World Bridge below.

A firestorm whipped up the air, sending out huge gusts of wind for miles. Several thousand more trees were knocked over from the impact of this, snapping into shards of wood. The shockwave from the force of the dragon's roar knocked tens of thousands of leaves into the air, most of which caught fire in a grand, massive storm of fire that spread out for miles beneath the dragon.

"Imagined… Imagined…" The dragon seemed to calm down, getting ahold of its rage as it continued flying.

"Such a stupid word. Of course nothing good would rhyme with it."

"…"

"Oh beautiful fire, why I search for thee! To find perfection, I must now see!"

It went back to its singing, meandering its way towards the world of Taprisha.