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Mid Morning - Mid Winter : The Coast of Eastern Bahamut

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- Krystallo Ragnarok ~

"Nnngh..." Rolling onto my side as the warmth of the fire started piercing the scales on my side, I let out a lethargic groan.

The fire was hot, enough to make my skin sting, but somehow I still felt cold.

.. "Brr..." *Rustle* Passing a chill down my spine, my senses ever-so-slowly sharpened, steadily becoming more in turn with my surroundings while my memories were jogged.

But the instant my final memories before getting knocked out surfaced, adrenaline flooded my brain, and my eyes shot open.

"AHH-!" Jumping up to my feet with a yell, my eyes darted around the room in a panic before my mana surged and ice exploded from the ground beneath me, extinguishing the fire.

But it was only a moment before I recognized the looming figure and suffocating presence of the one next to me.

"B..Brother..?" Finally starting to remember what happened in the short moment I woke up after getting attacked, my nerves slowly started easing, my raised tail relaxed, and my gaze fell to the floor to try and surface all the memories I could.

But the whole time I did that, I couldn't stop my shivers. I felt bitterly cold, but couldn't tell if it was from my anxiety or some physical chill in the air.

At least that was until I noticed the fog coming off my body. "W..what is this f-frost..?"

Quickly walking up to me in his draconic form without saying a word, Brother reached up and touched my snout with his paw. *VWOOM*

Almost immediately, my body was flooded with warmth, and the infectious cold vanished nearly entirely. -W..What...- It was such an instantaneous change I couldn't keep my eyes from going wide.

"Looks like the cold is still too much..." Pulling his paw away, Brother's expression quickly turned troubled.

"I told you it would be." Walking up behind him, Hera wore a somewhat berating look.

But it wasn't aimed at me. Using his tail to shush her, Brother's gaze turned up to my eyes and I subconsciously relaxed. "How are you feeling now, Krystallo? Warmer, I'd hope?"

"Y..yeah..." Somewhat reluctantly nodding, I slowly sat down before my eyes drifted. "I feel alright.. I think..."

"How's your arm?"

"Ah..." -Right...- Finally turning my head to the side to look at my shoulder since I couldn't really feel anything in the area, I immediately found a large circular area of scarred scales, clearly outlining where the massive hole was before my attention was dragged away by a blend of white and black. -W..what the...-

Looking at my tail, I found that feathers had sprouted out all along it, patterned with a beautiful mix of white and black, before noticing the feathers were also on my back and wings.

-What is.. all of this..?- Turning toward the large wall-sized window l immediately found the reflection of a dragon I didn't recognize staring back at me.

My figure was almost identical to before, yet feathers had sprouted out all across my body, and my horns, the plate-like scales on my underside, and my claws had all turned black like Brother's.

To say it was a sight I didn't expect was an unbelievable understatement, but at the same time.. I quite liked it...

Even if the feathers made me feel like a bird when I tilted my head. -I have to wonder though...- Looking back at brother, I rather quickly noticed how everywhere he had fur, I had feathers, plus some. "Where.. did the feathers come from?"

Seeing that I didn't hate it, he was quick to ease a bit. "They're just from our genetics. All Ragnaroks grow them after a certain age... At least except me..."

-Really..? I haven't heard of anything like that...- Turning back to the mirror-like glass, I started shifting around to see different areas of my body, but it wasn't long before some questions were raised. "What caused the feathers to grow? Was it the elixir?"

Quickly shaking his head, he was quick to sit down and relax his wings and tail.

"It's from the cold. As your aura gets stronger, so does that cold attribute of it, so over time, your body grows those feathers to try and dissipate the cold more efficiently.

Typically it only happens in the Ancient Stage. "

-What?- Turning up to him, a blend of skepticism contaminated my gaze while my feathered tail gently started swaying with curiosity.

"So why do I have them?" It was clear that I didn't possess the aura, reserve, or body of an ancient with just a glance.

Taking a moment to really look at it, my reserve and aura couldn't have grown by more than ten or twenty percent.

-So...- "Where is the cold coming from?"

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As far as Mother and Grandmother had taught me, the cold attribute of our reserves only grew in intensity when our reserves grew larger. -Yet Mother's reserve dwarfs mine completely,- And her cold attribute could actually crystallize ice on her body and horns. -So.. what changed?-

"Do you remember Hera telling you that I went to Atlas to speak with Mom and Dad?" Seeing me nod, he quickly continued. "Well, Grandmother was there too, and after some debate with Mom, she decided to give me something called the 'Frost King's Core', a relic from long before the war."

-Hm?- It was a name I didn't recognize.

"In any case, I mixed some of it's mana in with the elixir, then let your body drink whatever it wanted from it, however, about halfway through the process, your body started taking the mana from its shell rather than the core, and replacing your own with it.

.. And well..." Tilting his head, he paused, seemingly trying to find the words before continuing a bit hesitantly.

"At the end of it all, your reserve now has a fire attribute node woven into it, despite your current fire attribute node still existing. "

"What? That's possible?" Looking at Hera to confirm, she quickly nodded. -So the frost was coming from the node that's woven into my reserve...- "Is the node just amplifying the attribute of my aura?"

Brother nodded immediately. "I'm not entirely sure, but I believe so. If that is the case, you'll have to find some way other than just warming your body with the fire mana in your aura."

"Could I not just use my other node to keep myself warm?"

Hera instantly shrugged. "We aren't sure, to be honest... I've never even heard of a dragon with two of the same node, so we aren't sure how they will interact..."

"I see..." Feeling the chill spreading through my chest once again, I decided to give it a try, funneling some of the frigid mana from my reserve into my original node before collecting and swirling it like I was going to create a fireball.

However, after dispersing it around my reserve and feeling the chill settle, something unexpected happened... *Vwoom* Rather than simply cancelling out the cold, my fire mana just made it spread out further, but thinner. -What the...-

Spreading my fire mana out with it, the same thing just continued to happen. Every time I spread my fire mana, the chill would thin spread as well. -Is it because the two clouds of mana are competing for the same particles to influence?-

Tilting my head, I kept playing with it, spreading my mana out more and more until eventually, it was no longer contained by my body.

But.. I couldn't actually feel it.

Feeling comfortable, I looked over my shoulder to see snowflakes forming in the air and falling onto my back, thinning the fire mana in my body lessened the effect, and thickening it made it more aggressive.

"How fascinating... They aren't actually clashing.. but rather just competing for space... Is it because one is technically her aura..?" Hera mumbled under her breath while she watched me mess with it. "Try filling the air around you with the hotter mana as well."

Doing it without much thought, the light around me started warping, but as soon as I stopped moving things around, it all steadied and looked as if nothing was there...

However, that was most certainly not the case.

Creating a small water droplet, Brother was quick to toss it in the air next to me, only to watch the droplet freeze, explode, and refreeze in an endless looping reaction until the droplet was reduced to singular molecules. "Woah..."

Part of the droplet was freezing while another part was vaporizing, creating a chain reaction of phase changes that simply reduced the droplet to nothingness.

Trying again with an iron bead, something similar happened, with its surface glowing in places while in others it was completely solid.

But it wasn't so hot the iron would explode. -I wonder though...- Quickly multiplying the amount of fire mana I was creating while bringing out more raw mana from my reserve to treat like aura, the air around me started warping again..."Throw the bead in it again."

After waiting a moment for it to settle, Brother tossed another iron bead into the air around me.

But this time, it's reaction wasn't so tame. *P-P-P-POP* Instantaneously exploding, molten slag went everywhere before promptly solidifying and popping again like an endless chain of fireworks...

Until eventually.. there was nothing left of it...

For a number of minutes, Hera, Brother, and I all just stood in silence, lost in thought at the endless possible uses for the interaction.

But of course, some were more insane than others. -What if I...- Focusing all my cold aura in front of my face, I compressed my fire mana on it before suddenly, a hazy white orb appeared. "Brother.. can you throw another bead into this? Put some force into it as well."

"Uh.. alright..." *Vwoom* Instantaneously materializing another piece of iron, he looked at the hazy orb before shooting the bead into it with railgun magic. *CRRACK*

*WOOOSH* The moment the bead entered the orb, it disappeared before a colossal blast of air carrying the blend of mana blew over my face, streaking back my feathers while coating them in a fluctuating mix of frost and steam.

It was such an incredibly bizarre sensation, but at the same time, it made a smile finally come to my face. -This.. might be less inconvenient than I expected...-

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