Chapter 341: Payback

Late Afternoon - Late Summer : The Dungeon Of Colossus (Whats left of it) | Siratha

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"Uwaah..." Letting out a big yawn, I overlooked a huge clearing with almost a hundred dragons scattered about, each digging up the ground, uprooting and dragging away huge trees, and driving massive pillars into the ground before connecting them to countless several-thousand-ton bricks.

They were the first pieces of the foundation for a series of massive structures being built around the crater I made at the Dungeon of Colossus, now nicknamed 'The Well of Mana'.

It didn't take long for the name to spread between the masons and knights guarding the place, but with the mana being so dense that it was poisonous to younger dragons, even though some rumors had begun to spread, most people couldn't come here.

There were certainly some anomalies though. *crackle-pat* "Are you tired, Brother?"

"Hm?" Glancing over at Krystallo, I saw her perched on a tall, partially mythril boulder next to me with a curious look in her eyes. She, much to my surprise, was able to handle the mana almost as well as Mother. "I guess I could use a nap." -Though I have something to do before that.-

It had been a little over two weeks since shit hit the fan: since Siratha was invaded, the Dungeon of Colossus was turned into a giant crater, and Father almost died, and in that time, a lot had happened.

Intoxicated by more mana than she had ever experienced, Mother came up with the insane idea to build a city around the well of mana I made, and thankfully, while she said she would settle for an estate, as things progressed, it seemed like her original plan was coming to light.

After we checked in on Father two weeks ago, and Mother got an idea of what to do, she returned to Bahamut, going straight to Akri to pick up many of our family's strongest knights to protect Father. However, since the job would take years, the guards needed someplace to live, and rather than sending them to one of the cities a few hundred kilometers away, or camp out on the dirt, Mother decided to use it as an excuse to use military funds to start a small town there, all centered around The Well of Mana where she planned to have our estate.

It was a solid plan that would let us knock out several birds with one stone, from strengthening our family's perceived relationship with Siratha to giving our family yet another resource to grow our family's strength.

But even though it was my family, Lief, along with every other apostle, including the two newly appointed ones, quite strongly objected to her plans, specifically stating that her plans made it seem like the well, something accredited as my belonging, was going to be hoarded by dragons.

So, as the deciding factor, I spoke with Lief and reigned in Mother to meet in the middle.

Siratha's apostles and the Ragnarok family would have two separate estates that would be the closest estates to the well, essentially acting as a representative estate for both Bahamut and Siratha, with the crater itself and some of the surrounding area being reserved for 'ancient architecture', which were essentially monuments of worship, from around the time of The Great War, that would be my direct property as Nott like the God's Abode in the Tree of Prayer.

-But while the plans for this place were kept secret, some people still caught wind of...- Looking a few dozen kilometers down the mountain range, I saw a group of elves sweating and heaving, struggling to handle the mana even at that distance.

From what I overheard from the guards that checked on them, they were a group of extremely devout worshipers who wished to come see the first 'monument' I had made in tens of thousands of years, going as far as to camp in the mountains to slowly get accustomed to the mana and inch closer.

But soon enough they would no longer be alone, because of the announcement about everything that happened, the official reasons for the monster wave that had yet to settle down completely, the announcement of the prayer moving forward several years, and the declaration of war against the Holy Kingdom was only a few days away. -People will definitely flock here to see what's going on regardless of it being a restricted area...- But the mana was so thick that even ancients couldn't stand being too close for extended periods, so we didn't really need to worry about too many people.

Beyond that, I was hopeful not much would happen. Currently, Hera said she was still a few months from returning to Bahamut, and Lief's elixir made from a piece of my horn would soon be ready, but I didn't expect either of those to cause any sort of commotion over at least the next couple months.

So, I planned on going down to work on the Acardi laboratory. With Skuld now watching over Father, and plenty of ancients guarding him, I didn't need to worry.

My only issue was Krystallo.

Looking over at her again, questions buzzed through my mind before she noticed my stare and spoke up. "Hm? Is something the matter?"

"I plan on going to a place deep in the ocean soon, but I can't bring you, so what do you want to do?" I quickly ran through everything I could think of before listing a few examples. "You can stay here with Ilios, I can bring you to Bahamut and you can stay with Grandmother and Mother, or you can stay with Lief and Hera."

She didn't give it even a moment of thought. "I'll stay with sister Hera!"

I instantly jolted while choking on my own thoughts. -SISTER?!- "Since when have you called her sister?"

But she responded so nonchalantly. "I originally called her auntie, but she insisted I say sister."

A wave of conflicting feelings quickly clouded my mind before I eventually just let out a sigh. "Haah..." -I guess she's still trying to warm up to Krystallo after her.. rough introduction...- I didn't totally make sense to me at the time, especially considering how enthusiastically Krystallo said she would stay with her, but it was enough for me to look past it, eventually letting us move on to talk about a few more things before finally flying back to Valtivar.

The flight itself was pretty enjoyable though. Over the last few days, a huge thunderstorm had formed over the outskirts of Valtivar, so the flight ended up getting extended a little bit by an unprompted lesson on electricity, which Krystallo really enjoyed.

But eventually, it came to an end.

After arriving in Valtivar, I met up with Hera and Lief, quickly speaking about the progress of the project around the Well of Mana and checking up on Lief's elixir before eventually leaving Krystallo with Hera and getting ready to jump through the void to get to the lab.

But before I got that far, I noticed Ilios wasn't too keen on staying with Krystallo this time. "Whats up buddy?"

Although he looked like he was napping, he was clinging onto my back with his aura quite firmly.

"Do you want to come with my this time?"

His ears instantly perked up.

"It's in the ocean.. I'm not sure if you'll really enjoy it..."

Finally popping his head up, he looked a me with eyes of excitement as his tail started to wag furiously.

It was adorable, but even I could tell it was from naivety. -He.. doesn't know what it's gonna be like, huh...- Quickly realizing I needed to slowly descend through the water in order to make sure he would be alright, I clarified several things with him, explaining how he needed to make sure his eardrums wouldn't rupture and tell me if its getting too deep for him before finally moving through the void and coming out in the sky over Amara's family's place in the mountains.

*vwoop* Immediately looking down to make sure we were in the right place, I found Amara's family's place, which thankfully seemed pretty untouched since I had last seen it.

But the moment I looked away, Ilios stood up and looked down at the towering, choppy waves coming from a storm off shore and hopped off my back with a wildly wagging tail.

"How eager." Quickly following after him, we accelerated toward the ground from almost a dozen kilometers in the air. -But he doesn't seem to be slowing down...-

Wondering what he was doing, I spread my wings to slow my descent slightly and kept my eyes on him.

But the moment he reached the base of the mountain, he bounced off the rocky beach, maintaining his momentum before laying his ears back and slamming head-first into the face of a nearly hundred-meter wave.

*splash-BAAAAAANG* The water around him instantly vanished, turning into steam from the raw energy of the impact before flattening every wave within a dozen kilometers as if he just punched Posideon in the gut.

If anything was in that water, it was undoubtedly liquified.

But with some momentum to spare, he darted out over the now glassy ocean, running over it as if it were solid ground and picking up speed, accelerating well past mach before finally jumping into the air and getting ready to dive down into the water like a fox diving into a burrow. -Should I.. stop him?-

But with just a slight hesitation, I missed my chance to do anything. *VWOOM-BAAAANGGG* He hit the waters surface like a bomb, slamming into the water like a sledgehammer and transferring the energy equivalent of an earthquake into the water.

Or in other words, a nuke.

The next thing I knew, I was simply hovering in the air, staring at a plume of water that stretched kilometers into the air, with a slight red tint within it before eventually, the squashed eyeball of a lurker came flying out of the top.

The next thing I knew, a satisfied smile came across my face. -I wonder if my hate for those bastards translated to Ilios or if it's just a coincidence.-

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