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Mid Morning - Early Winter : The Cabinet | Bahamut

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*Crackle-VWOOOM* Dousing myself with a wave of freshly made mana, I quickly shook it off my head before glancing around the cave-like well I had dug myself into.

-There was less enriched mana this time.

.. Maybe I am onto something...- *Splash* Dunking my scaled tail into the pool of mana I was standing in, I tried to feel for how deep it was before hopping up out of the well itself.

*FWOOSH-Thump* Finding myself in the central courtyard of the Cabinet, I wasted no time turning to a younger dragon wearing yellow bands around his horns and neck. "Sorry it took so long for me to get around to this well. I got caught up in my own endeavors."

He immediately got flustered. "P-Please don't be sorry, my lord! It's a blessing just to be able to meet you, let alone see you perform such a miracle!"

-Looks like Hera's picked out some trusted young ones...- Similar to Chloe, he was a dragon with a very high mana tolerance, to the point he could withstand the creation of an immense mass of mana, and remain exposed to it for quite a while without trouble.

He was her go-to project manager for more secretive projects like the construction of the thunderbird nest near Emporio, and the construction of the lids to the mana wells I had been creating around Bahamut.

It did feel a little odd to expose my draconic form to him though, as he knew I was Nott. -But it's not like it matters if someone in Hera's inner circle knows about me.- He already knew about Hera after all. "Alright then, just keep up the good work."

"O-Of course!" With a bright gleam in his eyes, he eagerly nodded before pulling out a mix of papers and materials.

But I wasn't about to stick around and watch him work.

*FWOOSH* Quickly taking to the air, I sank back into my own thoughts.

It had been a number of days since I left the Library of Eternity with Hera at that point, but while it was enough time to get a lot done, by Hera's recommendation, I had been taking it somewhat easy by going and creating about a dozen mana wells around Bahamut, and using it as an opportunity to learn about enriched mana.

As it was, enriched mana was like a thousand scattered puzzle pieces I had to slowly piece together, but it was steadily coming along.

Even in just the experiments I did when making the last two mana wells, I figured out that I could more reliably make it by focusing lots of energy into a small point, like launching a long needle-like chunk of rock into the void rather than a normal round one.

-Meaning enriched mana is probably just supercharged unattributed mana rather than being a new attribute. ..-

But it, unfortunately, didn't get me any closer to figuring out how to mass produce it, and while I found myself craving it from time to time, I could only leave that craving to fester while I worked on my to-do list.

Not everything on that list was chores though. *Vwoop* *Vwoop* Quickly jumping through the void, I exited in the sky over the Sirathan Mountains before quickly descending to a mountaintop where two white dragons sat. *Fwoosh-Fwoosh-Thump* "Did I keep you waiting?"

With a beautiful glistening in the ice hanging from her horns, Mother quickly turned to look at me. "Of course not. Is the mana well endeavor going well so far?"

Quickly nodding, I shrunk down to about thirty meters and walked over to her. "It'll be a while before we see much effect from them, but they will definitely help in the long run. The more urgent issue is the cultivation of soul lilies but Hera had a few ideas with that so I'm leaving it to her."

Mother's warm smile quickly turned smug. "It's good to see you can trust her with such a task."

"Well of course," Looking down the mountainside at Father's still, unmoving body, I smiled. "Some other things have taken priority."

Over the course of the last few days, I had finally amassed what I believed to be enough divinity to accelerate Father's dragon sleep, leaving just the final preparations which I needed to make within the void.

But because of the difference in the flows of time, Mom and Krystallo had come to see Father's awakening.

In their eyes, it will be almost instant, even if it takes a few years for me.

-But I don't think it'll be that bad...- "Also," Quickly turning my gaze to Krystallo who was sitting on the ground sorting a tall stack of paper, I gave Mom an awkward look. "Why is Krystallo doing that here?"

Mother's smile instantly widened. "Oh~, she just lost a bet with me-"

"I DIDN'T!" *PUFF-Flutter* Angrily smacking the papers into the air, Krystallo whipped around and glared at her. "Myalo has to be possessed or something! The switch was instant! People's personalities don't just change like that!"

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Mother's gaze quickly turned cold as she grabbed and restacked the papers Krystallo threw. "It doesn't change the fact that he is related to the cult, and that you shouldn't go near him for the time being."

Snapping her gaze onto me, Krystallo begged me with her eyes.

-I wonder why she's still defending him if she can't refute that he's involved in the cult...- Turning to Mom, I spoke calmly. "Could you summarize what the situation is?"

She continued with a nod. "Myalo has multiple personalities by the looks of things, and one of them has visions of what we believe could be the target of worship of the cult.

Considering the movements of suspicious figures around him, we think he may be something like an apostle or priest in the eyes of the cult, whether he knows about it or not. "

-Hm... That's certainly possible...- "What was the multiple personality thing like?"

Mother's expression quickly turned grim. "The boy says there are always voices in his head, and by the sounds of things, are much more mature than he is so I thought it could be one of those possession things like Krystallo said, but figured you would have figured something like that out."

As I nodded, the glimmer of hope on Krystallo's face faded.

"His soul is normal. If it is possession, they fully committed to taking the body.

I don't see a reason why they'd leave the child to control the body.

" -But it makes even less sense if it's multiple different people in his body.

..- It really felt odd to think about, almost like I was talking about some kind of chimera.

-Maybe I just have to interrogate him myself when I get the chance.

- "Has Hera made any comments on it yet? "

"Not yet, she's been wrapped up in other matters."

-She's probably getting ready to have Grandmother make that announcement about them.

..- While we were leaving the library, we discussed how we wanted to handle the cult since we knew the origin of it, and both agreed that a more passive approach was better for the time being.

-If we acknowledge their existence and get them to stop doing things like live sacrifice, we can squash them when Hera announces her seat as Monarch during the Coming of Age Ceremony. -

Which was right around the corner. "For now, just keep a bit of distance from him, okay Krystallo? I'll personally take a closer look at him after I wake up Father, and get one other thing done." -Hopefully I can get the satellites back online... The intel from them would certainly be helpful.-

*Thump* Sitting back down with a defeated pout, Krystallo silently muttered, "I just want to help him..."

But I decided not to comment on it. -Regardless of the outcome, this should be a good lesson for her.

..- Looking over at Mom once more, I started walking toward the edge of the mountaintop.

"In any case, I think it's time we get to the reason I was here.

" *Flash* Swapping to my fenririan form, I made my way down to the mana well, now surrounded by an entire town of elves and dragons watching on in awe.

-Leif really built this place up, huh... -

But it certainly wasn't a bad thing.

From what I could tell, the Elves were mostly noble, and many of the dragons held their heads like nobility, meaning what I was about to do was going to be an incredibly influential publicity stunt, especially to those who looked at me with gazes of skepticism.

But while it'd only be the flicker of a second for the 'miracle' to take place in their eyes, it was going to be a long haul for me.

*Vwoom* Picking up Father with my aura, I quickly walked him toward the well before hopping down into the deep pool of liquid mana. "Ooo~..." It was nice and cool. -Wish I could stick around in it more...- *Vwoop*

Quickly hopping into the void with Father and a huge mass of liquid mana, I hastily created an 'air pocket' around us to keep the void away before constructing a miniature fabric of space around and through Father's body.

It was time to begin the most important experiment of my entire life.

'Could I speed up a dragon sleep'.

And sure enough, while it took several years within the void, and a few returns to reality to grab more mana, his body grew, his soul was strengthened, and the color of his scales shifted.

But more than anything, his reserve, working like an endlessly dry sponge, absorbed mana so aggressively that strands of divinity started forming a web in his chest.

He reached a stage only dragons becoming ancients were known to have.

And when his eyes eventually snapped open, revealing his new, mythril-green irises, it was clear it wasn't just happenstance.

Father was back, this time with a body that could nearly sustain itself with mana, and the soul of an ancient.

But even he didn't seem to realize that at first. *Vwoop-SPLASH* Returning to reality the moment I saw his eyes beginning to open, we fell down into the pool of mana in the well, and he broke out into panic. "AH!"

With a yell, he jolted up to his feet and jumped up out of the mana, but I was quick to pull him back down. "Where are you going?" *Vwoom-SPLASSHH* -Why is he so panicked?-

But that question was answered almost instantly. "H-huh?! V-Vasilias?" His voice bordered delirious. "I.. I definitely died... W..What's happening..?"

He seemed to lack the typical internal clock dragons were known to have, so he remembered the events in the dungeon as if they had just happened. -I wonder if that's from me messing with his soul...-

But while I was certainly curious, I didn't really care.

All I cared about was that he was alive, and that he seemed to be himself. -Thank goodness his soul is okay...-

I could only let out a breath of relief as I watched him begin to take a look at the mythril tint in his silvery-white scales with a mix of awe and panic.

"It's good to have you back, Dad."

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