Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

As accurate as Niudisa's guess might have been, when the spores settled, the dragonfly was laying still and curled up, like most insects upon death. If Niudisa tried to reanimate it, she'd find that there was nothing to reanimate, the thing had become completely hollow, just an exoskeleton left behind by the bug that once was.

"Uh, guys," Jerry knocked on the side of the jar, "I think we killed it.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa crossed her arms. “Hm... That’s assuming it was alive to begin with. That right there isn’t a body, just a shell....”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"It bled when Asta stabbed it," Jerry fluttered over to the forge to retrieve the knife, coming back palming it back and forth like a hot stone. The blade was crusted over with bug guts, and warped by the heat. A lost knife indeed. "See?" She had to pinch the blade between her claws to hold it still for any length of time, but it did show that there had in fact been something inside the bug's shell before she dropped it.

"I don't think this is another feeder, anyway," Adran set the jar down, on a table, which Jerry soon lighted down on top of the lid. "Hang on, I think I've got a..."

"The mana signature on the head of the dragonfly isn't like anything in this room," Nyah said, glancing sideways but not stopping the illusion she was entertaining Shuffle and Fia with, which by now was a story about a destitute farmboy that found a dragon egg while hunting. "It feels familiar, though, I don't know why."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa looked over. “Familiar? Hm... Did you and your last master ever have any dealings with a goblin?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"What?", Nyah shook her head, "No, my last master sent me back to my box when a dragon turned into a young man in front of us." She thought quietly for a moment, "But I do remember something happening while I was in my puzzle box, everything all of the sudden went dark. And then Shuffle opened it."

 

[Fangs9090]

“That dark part may have been the anti-magic field. Or something that happened before we encountered Urodor.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I doubt it could have had to do with your door," Nyah shook her head, "Time passes the same in my puzzle box as it does outside it."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa paused for a moment. “How long after meeting the dragon was it that things went dark for you?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Um," the uillusion paused while Nyah did a tally on her fingers, several more arms appearing out of the smoke to help her count. "Seventy years, give or take?"

"Did the dragon have a gigantic crossbow?", Jerry asked.

"No, he was using an enormous sword," Nyah shook her head.

"Huh."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa shrugged. “Guess he picked up the crossbow later. In any case, this line of thought doesn’t seem to be leading to the source of this bug or what it even is. I’d hoped it would, but oh well.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"i got sidetracked, didn't I?", Nyah shook her head and the smoke arms vanished, "But I felt that mana signature right before everything went dark. I'm not sure how long it took Shuffle to solve the puzzle afterwards-"

"This is literally the next day."

"Then whatever was around when my puzzle box was drained is the source of that mana signature."

 

[Fangs9090]

“The anti-magic field was our doing. The only other magic source at the time was that goblin. Guess he’s not just waiting around for us to try again.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh," Nyah looked down for a moment, and then looked a little angry. "That hurt! I'm tied to a magic item, why did you do that to me?!"

"In our defense-"

"Shut up, Adran!"

"Hey, that's my line," Jerry snapped at the djinn.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa crossed her arms. “Look, that whole thing was a mess. For one thing, none of us knew you were in there, which is why Shuffle got to keep it. And no one tossed you into the field either. Shuffle passed through on accident, which made her shut down completely.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"You guys are jerks." Nyah crossed her arms and huffed, turning back to the two she was entertaining to continue the story.

"Anyway," Jerry hopped down the jar, "Adran, dispel, whatever it's called," she snapped her fingers.

Adran just shook his head, "I told you the spell lasts for an hour, it hasn't even been a full ten minutes since it was cast." Getting Jerry to learn how to fly had only taken a few minutes, and chasing down the dragonfly didn't even take two. Things felt like they took longer when you were moving faster. "Best I can do is add another layer of polymorph, but that would just poof you back to fairy and make you wait for that timer to go down as well."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa looked over at Jerry. “All the more time for you to enjoy my perspective. It’s not too bad, huh? The Paladin already knows.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Joanne shuddered again. "It is fun, but," Jerry picked up one of her knives, "I couldn't kill a gnat with this, and as fun as flying is, you of all people know how small my mana pool is."

"Maybe you can make it... bigger?", Veo offered.

"That's what Urodor's for, and I can't pull him out when I'm this small."

"You wouldn't have mana problems if you'd have kept the dragon crystal," Adran shrugged, "We've got more, if you want another piece."

 

[Fangs9090]

“That would help. I’m not sure what effect it would have on your gradual transformations. It is possible to expand your mana pool, with the right training. It takes time though.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Gradual my ass," Jerry grumbled.

"It is pretty nice." Joanne smacked Adran upside the head.

"It may hasten what the dragon is doing to you," Joanne tried to rephrase what Niudisa had said, "But Niudisa demonstrated in the turtle den, even a small fragment of the dracolich phylactery provides abundant mana."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa nodded. “If I had one of those full sized and easy to use, I could probably take over the world.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Absolutely not!", Joanne's head snapped towards Niudisa like it was on the neck of an owl, not a human.

"Fine, hand me the damn dragon rock.", Jerry held out her arms for it while Adran fished one out. Most of the pieces were pretty big, except for the few smaller shards like the one Jerry had worn before, and the one that he'd given to Shuffle in the beginning.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa crossed her arms. “I didn’t say I would. I said I could. World domination is a bit too much work for how little reward I’d get.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"And too much power for any mage, let alone a necromancer."

"Hey, girls, your both pretty but, uh, I think Jerry's got the superior claim here," Adran was referring to the dragon soul wrapped around Jerry's as he fished out a finger-sized shard, "Careful, it's sharp."

"And it probably weighs more than me right now," Jerry grumbled as she took the gem.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa shrugged. “So long as it doesn’t get in my way, the world is hers for the taking. I’ll stick to my pursuit of knowledge.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"When i get out of here, I'm retiring," Jerry replied, trying to find a way to carry the crystal that wasn't incredibly awkward. "Niudisa, how the hell did you pull this off in the turtle den?"