Chapter 2: Death And Sacrifice

(This chapter was uploaded on Saturday 14/October/2023 8:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter.

"..." small moment of silence

"Talking"

"He-" Someone was interrupted.

'Thinking'

[Skills' names, chanting and spells' names]

Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

(Line Break)

"So? What are we going to do with Nephelont hogging all the monsters today?" Asked one of the party members. 

This person is a man who has ashen blond and shaggy hair. His gray eyes were not at their best, as his eyebags were heavy. His mouth was dry, but he did not show it. He was frowning. 

He had light armor covering his vitals and some of his joints. He also held up a shield and a short sword. 

As an adventurer, he wore some little bags and a holster for miscellaneous items. Between them were potions, antidotes and other things. 

His party leader, who he called Nephelont, was in a bad mood today. He woke up and chose violence. He decided to take on all of the monsters that show up today all by himself. 

Nephelont was a man that looked like a copy of his father with the same height of 173 cm (AN: Bell had years of growing up after his 15th birthday). The only apparent difference is their color scheme. While Nephelont's father had white hair and crimson eyes, Nephelont had golden hair like his mother. As for his eyes, they were heterochromatic, with one being red and one being golden. Nephelont and his father looked like a pair of rabbits. 

Nephelont had light armor with the words 'Pyonkishi Junior MKIII' written on the chest piece, accompanied by a carving of a golden bunny with a ruby for one eye. 

(AN: Welf's naming sense is otherworldly, as most of you know by now) 

He wielded a spear with both hands and pierced and sliced his way through the horde the party will be carving later. 

"As he fights, Thomas, Angelica and I will carve the magic stones while Frederick will protect us from stray monsters. What about that?" A woman said to the three others in their party of five. 

"Eucleia, should we really leave him be? I mean, it isn't the first time, but he fought until he collapsed the last time this happened" The man named Thomas said. 

He was talking to the only other woman in the party aside from his sister, Eucleia. 

Her build was muscular. She stood at a respectable 185 cm. 

She had broad shoulders. That did not take from her feminine charm. In fact, it gave her a sense of her own unique charm. She wore fur armor that should have been worn in cold climate. 

Her red hair looked like a braided flame that flowed to the back of her knees. She had cyan ear locks. 

Her face was the perfect shape. Her blue, almond-shaped wide eyes, her thin and straight eyebrow, her sharp nose, her rosy cheeks, her thin lips and rounded chin. All these features and her hair worked together to make that perfect face. 

Her shoulders were at their broadest within what could be considered feminine. 

Her bust was not small but was also not abnormally large. 

Her sides looked built under that fur armor. Rather, all of her muscles were well defined under it. 

Her armor was blue with red fur accents. It complemented her looks even more. For her weapon of choice, it was a simple-looking and very practical great bow. 

Thomas and Angelica were brother and sister with similar looks. They had gray hair and bright black eyes. Thomas had a nose that was middle ground, whereas Angelica's was thin. Their mouths were both wide while Angelica's was smaller by only a little. 

Thomas stood around 176 cm while his sister stood at 169 cm. 

The only reason Angelica did not talk for the entire decade and a half of knowing them was because she was mute. One accident with an adventurer was all it took for her to be injured permanently. 

Thomas had spiked fist-weapons. He smashed monsters to death with them. As for Angelica, she was a capable supporter. She could hold her ground against a monster or two and still do her job correctly. She was trained by a capable senior. 

The four of them started spreading in a formation. 

Thomas and Angelica will be carving magic stones while scouting for monsters opposite Eucleia's direction. 

Frederick stood in a position that formed a triangle with Eucleia in the middle. He was supposed to be the one most actively on the lookout for monsters. 

It was exactly as he wanted it to be. He was hatching a plan for a while now. 

'It was always that damned Nephelont hogging everything to himself! Eucleia was already chasing him by the time we met, and I lost that race! Angelica, the one who was supposed to love me, also fell for him! Damn him! I will take the things most dear to him! From his wife to his family and friends! I will do good with his mother too! She is too beautiful to leave to that rabbit of a father of his!' 

Frederick never revealed any trace of these thoughts and emotions. He kept on suppressing them. That was until the dam broke and he crossed the point of no return. 

He walked near Eucleia, who trusted him to do nothing wrong after all these years adventuring together. 

It was a mistake that would deprive her of her other half. 

As Frederick got closer, he greased his short sword with a poison especially concocted to kill an adventurer with high abnormal resistance. It was a mix of multiple poisons that were near impossible to treat individually, even for the famous Dea Saint. 

A simple stab in the gap between the helmet and the chestplate was all it took to both cut an artery and spread the poison both to her head and to the rest of her body. 

Even though Frederick was holding a hand against her mouth to muffle her screams of agony, it was to his horror to see Nephelont standing there, frozen in place with an unbelieving pair of eyes, boring holes in Frederick's soul and beyond it. 

Nephelont was standing there, his mind having stopped functioning. He blindly trusted those close to him, as he did not get exposed to betrayal before this incident. It broke him to see one who he considered a friend holding a knife stabbed in his wife's neck, another hand silencing her screams. 

What broke his heart and soul even more was the desperate look in her eyes, both for him to help her, and for this situation to be a lie, a mere nightmare she should wake up from. 

Both Thomas and Angelica noticed Nephelont's eyes and took a look. They saw the horrible thing that happened in silence behind them. 

All three looked at him in shock and disbelief, pausing to process the thing they saw. Frederick took the chance and turned around to escape. 

Killing Eucleia, Nephelont's wife, and trying to escape were the poorest decisions he took in his entire life. 

You see, that escape was impossible. Even if he was several levels higher than Nephelont, he would fail to escape him. 

Nephelont, who finally processed what happened, looked at the back of a freak he wanted dead, no longer seeing a friend in him. 

His broken heart and torn soul bubbled with unadulterated, primal anger. His anger took hold of his senses, and he went wild. 

Among the skills he had, there were two skills no one could read, even his goddess, Hestia. 

Those skills revealed only their names, [Draconic Heart] and [Draconic Sacrifice]. Their descriptions were merely question marks. 

He could use [Draconic Heart] to some extent. But turning himself into a dragon, even if partially, scared him. 

He did not want to cross the boundary and become a full-fledged dragon permanently. He valued his human and spiritual lineage. 

In this moment, his reason disappeared, and he only wanted Frederick dead. What he did not know was that his skill took full effect, and he became a fearsome dragon. 

His body was mostly covered by peridot-green scales. ('1) 

His eyes' colors were a mystery. In place of that, there appeared to be blackholes in his eye sockets. Around the eyes, there were wrinkles that looked like cracks, ones that extended the reach of the blackholes he had for eyes. They were surrounded by fern-green scales that took a flame's shape and pointed backwards. 

He had two horns made of the same crystal as his scales. The two horns pointed forward. They sprouted straight up from above his eyes and curved smoothly until they pointed forward, angled a little towards each other. They were long and thin. Their tips were pointy and looked very sharp. They were emerald satin-green, surrounded by scales that gradually became fern-green. 

His wings were large and wide, but not enough to be a burden to him. They were covered in emerald-green scales. 

His arms ended in human-like hands. His hind legs were human-like to a scary degree, except for the fact that the feet were longer, forcing him to stand on his toes' joints. There was also a difference in his claws. He had short, stout claws, mounted atop fingers that would have looked short for the size of his palms. They had the same color as his horns. 

His tail was as long as he was high standing up. It was thin enough to compensate for its excessive length and was covered in the same fern-green scales as the rest of his body. 

Through the different shades of green crystals, his night sky dark-blue skin was partly visible. 

His underside was covered in fine see-through, glass-like scales. 

Excluding the head, the horns on the head, the neck, the wings, the tail and the feet, his frame looked mostly human. If he so wished, he could stand on his hind legs and act as if he was one. 

On his back, a set of what looked like the marks of claws formed from chrysolite-green crystals. They meant something no one will know for a time. ('2) 

The moment the beast that was Nephelont finished transforming, Frederick had just finished turning his back on him. 

The muscles in Nephelont's arms and legs tensed. When he released that tension, it bolted him right into Frederick's back. 

The force of the impact launched Frederick forward and onto his face. He was disoriented and the blunt trauma to his spine nearly paralyzed him. He was barely able to twitch his lower body and the piercing pain prevented him from being able to move using his arms. It was even more impossible to run away now. 

"You two! Keep Clea alive! Spare no elixir nor an antidote!" 

Nephelont was not the only one thinking that. Thomas and Angelica were already on it by the time he asked them. 

"Nephelont! I'm so-" Frederick was not granted the courtesy to continue talking. Nephelont felt like it was a waste on him. 

"Now, you know what you have done wrong. There is no point in asking you if you knew or not. And precisely because of that, I will imprint the very image of despair into your filthy soul, just like how you did to her" 

What ensued from there was a torture session where the tortured one was screaming for every soul to hear. 

Nephelont cut him with the tip of his claws that felt like sharp glass. Admittedly, they were both made out of crystal, both his claws and glass. 

The wounds burned and they kept increasing until Frederick was covered in them from head to toe. 

He was bleeding all over, open wounds burning with pain and his mind on the verge of going into shutdown from the blood loss. He felt the release nearing him. It was the sweet release from this torture he was feeling coming closer. 

"You remember what this is, right?" 

Nephelont held up a bottle full of a liquid almost as clear as water but had the viscosity of honey. It was a type of gel developed by Nephelont with the help of the alliance's pharmacists. 

"Of course, you do remember. Who am I kidding? You would not be carrying it with you otherwise" 

Nephelont contributed to this by transforming only one part or two of his body into those of a dragon's. In this case, it was his blood and the vessels carrying it. 

He bled his draconic blood into a plate. His blood was the core substance to produce this miracle potion. 

Drinking it or rubbing it on a wound makes even the strongest of elixirs pale in comparison. Its only flaw is that it cures no poison. 

Nephelont dipped his claws in a good dose of the potion. He started cutting him on top of the already open injuries. 

As the claws, dipped in a miraculous potion, passed over those injuries, they made him feel the same pain of opening new wounds. 

It was a new type of hell compared to a moment ago. 

The potion was replenishing his lost blood and closing the wounds it passes by. Nephelont was leaving him with the worst case of ghost pain he could give. 

"What do you say? Should I scatter the dust of one of my scales into your wounds? That will make it more painful, you know" 

Nephelont did not wait for him to say anything. He quickly crushed one of his scales and made sure it entered Frederick's bloodstream. 

It made it so Frederick suffers from internal wounds and external ones, both of which felt like burns. He did not have room for thought from the pain. He could not even think of regretting what he did. 

The only things Frederick could feel were the constant stream of pain and wanting said pain to stop. He could not say that, however, as Nephelont intentionally cut his vocal cords before using the potion. 

Said potion could not heal Frederick's vocal cords after entering his blood was because it got consumed replenishing the lost blood and repairing the walls of his blood vessels. 

"I don't want to waste more precious time or potions on the likes of you. Because we were friends until moments prior, I will release you from this hell" 

Nephelont could see Frederick smiling in relief. He was finally going to be released from this suffering. 

Seeing that smile, Nephelont hated it. He breathed fire into his dying corpse and left him there, thinking that monsters would take care of him if the fire did not. 

"Clea..." Nephelont turned to Eucleia. 

Eucleia was still alive, just barely. The blood she lost was replenished and the effects of the poison were healed every time the potion was applied. It kept her alive, but she was still suffering from heavy poisoning. 

"Thomas, Angelica, you will be carrying her to the surface while I eliminate any monster that comes close. Keep applying drake-blood potions all the way up" 

They were thankfully early in their dive today. They are currently in the fifteenth floor. 

It took them an hour of rushing their way and all their potions to reach the surface safely with Eucleia alive. 

"Clea, are you awake?" 

"Yes" This was all she could say under the effects of those poisons wreaking havoc in her body. 

"Let's hurry, Nephelont" 

"We will" 

As they exited the dungeon, the people there, being mostly armed adventurers, unsheathed their weapons and were ready for battle. 

"You can sheathe your weapons and stop chanting. I am also an adventurer, and this is the effect of one of my skills. Now, move. One of us needs immediate medical attention" They moved aside once he showed them his falna as proof. 

The party made their way to Dian Cecht familia's pharmacy. Dea Siant, Airmed Teasanary, was here. She may be able to do something. 

"You two go inside and see what can be done" Sadly, Nephelont could not accompany them in. 

Going by the way he stands now; he is standing on all four. He grew to be four times his human height as time went on. 

What prevents him from getting in is the door. It is too narrow for his shoulders, which were more than 1.5 m wide. 

When he stands on two legs, he is 6.92 m at the shoulder. Adding his neck and head, that becomes ~8 m. 

After waiting with bated breath, his hopes came crashing down. Thomas came out with his head held low. He shook his head sideways while biting his lips. 

Angelica was crying over Eucleia's corpse. She died fast when the drake-blood potions ran out. They were the only thing maintaining her life in her previous condition. Not to mention the mix of poisons was impossible to deal with in this short amount of time. 

"Bring me her body. After thinking of what my other unknown skill could do, the name should have made it obvious. I can make a sacrifice to do something that should not be done. I will use my skill to revive her" 

Thomas was shocked. He looked at Nephelont to try and see something in his eyes. All he saw was a heart-broken man. He had a hunch of what would happen, but he complied. He did not have it in him to prevent a heart-broken husband from trying to revive his wife. 

He went inside and told them to prepare a stretcher to bring her to Nephelont. 

"If something happens to me, tell my family that I love them for me" Nephelont said what will become some of his last words and started activating [Draconic Sacrifice]. 

Upon the activation of the skill, he felt a part of him getting ripped out. He knew at that moment that the sacrifice he needed to make was his life. 

The process continued with him losing color and Eucleia gaining hers back. As his breathing became shallower, hers became more stable. As his face showed the pain of losing his life, Eucleia's face showed signs of the serenity of being alive and well. 

His skill finally reverted him back to a human form. Just as his last sliver of life was about to be muted, he saw Eucleia opening her eyes and looking around. 

"My Clea, stay well" Nephelont breathed his last. 

"Dear?" Eucleia looked at him only to see his limp body and his visible soul disintegrating into nothingness right in front of her. The last thing she saw was his pained yet hopeful smile as he was looking at her with eyes that wished her a happy life going forward. 

(Line Break) 

"NEPHELONT!!" Eucleia woke up with a start. Her now vertically slit left eye shot open. Her blue ear locks became ice-blue. 

She took some time to recover from that memory like she always did for the past six years. 

"How colder would this bed feel?" She woke up to her lonesome again. 

"Mommy? Was there a problem?" One of her children peeked from behind the door to her room. 

"It was simply a memory of my past, deary. You do not need to think much of it" 

"Was it dad?" Another popped beside the first. 

"Come here, my little kits" They took after their paternal grandfather and their father. Their paternal grandfather's genes were dominant ones, and they inherited them. 

The door opened to show three little rabbits, the spitting image of how their father looked like as a child but with different colors. 

All three of them had red hair. Their eyes, however, had colors distinct from each other. 

The one who peeked his head first had lime eyes, the one who peeked her head next had gray eyes, while the last one had the same blue eyes as Eucleia. Of course, like their mother, their eyes were vertical slits. 

"Mother, grandmother Ais told us to wake you up for breakfast" 

"Agni, where are you?" 

"BO!" A fourth child jumped from behind her. This child had the same red hair and a pair of fiery eyes to match. 

"AHH! What? Oh, you playful kit! Come here!" Eucleia played along with her other daughter. 

"Agni, Tina, Thuu, Augustus, should we go to eat breakfast with the rest of the family?" 

Eucleia called two of them by nicknames, those two being Thumper and Clementina. That feisty daughter wanted no nicknames. As for Augustus, he did not want outsiders to hear his mother calling him by a nickname in public. 

Thumper, or Thuu, was the child with lime eyes from earlier. He was as easily embarrassed as his father and grandfather before him. 

Clementina, or Tina, was the child with grey eyes. She did not talk as she was mute like Angelica, but for a different reason. Thankfully, she had three siblings and many friends from within the familia alliance to play with. That gave her a normal childhood. 

Augustus was the one with the blue eyes. He was not mute, but he preferred not to talk when he did not need to. 

Finally, Agni. She was an energetic child with no foreseen limits to her energy. She inherited her prankster nature from her father. 

"What do you think today's breakfast is, mom?" Agni asked her mother. 

"Well, maybe boiled eggs with some cheese and salads?" Eucleia threw her guess, playing along. 

"Wrong answer! Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Agni ran to the kitchen laughing. 

'I wonder how you would have felt, my Bunbun' Eucleia smiled while hiding her feelings from her children. They went to eat breakfast with their family. 

(Line Break) 

End of Chapter. 

'1: 

Here is a picture for those wondering what shades I thought of. 

'2: 

Yes, I still gave him a name in accordance with what he achieved as a dragon, in his last moments. It is in Dovahzul, the dragon tongue of Skyrim's dragons. I will deal with how he discovers the meaning in chapters after the main story's end. 

After the explanation, now comes the turn for news. This chapter was squeezed right before my midterms. The impossible three, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, their mids are all within the next week. The next chapter will take until next week, and a bit more, to be uploaded.

Have a good time until we meet again, ladies and gentlemen.