Chapter 317: The Key

Chapter 317: The Key

Fireball was probably the best-known spell on Earth. Even those unfamiliar with roleplaying games had heard of it in one context or another. In the imagination of people, it ranged from a jokey puff of fire that could barely light a candle to a giant star of heated plasma that had the strength to vaporize mountains. In the awakened realms, it was the latter.

Three more chunks of molten metal smashed into an island of the Vermillion, all having the same devastating effects. As significant as the destruction seemed to be, though, it didnt have a huge impact on the Vermillions snake. Fighting an island archipelago wasnt as easy as one might think, which further made Dallion aware of his shields true power. It would be quite a while before he could upgrade any of his gear.

Once the last salvo of heated metal hit its target, Lux quickly zipped back to catch Dallion before he fell into the sea. The attack method was far from efficient, but with a single firebird that was all Dallion could achievehe could have aerial maneuverability or direct chunks of molten metal at his enemy, but not both. Dallion had asked Gleam whether she could serve as his wings, at which point the shardfly had just laughed. Judging by the emotions that appeared within her, she was both unwilling and currently incapable of such a feat.

However, Dallion saw a much greater issue presented. He had effectively been capable of having firearms the moment Lux had become his familiar. Even without forging knowledge he could well have had the firebird propel pebbles at enemies. Instead, the only great discovery Dallion had made was combining his two familiars to create the homing Nox dagger. That made for a lot of wasted opportunities. Most likely they wouldnt have helped him in his personal leveling up, but it would have against everything else. It seemed that the same memories that had helped him cope with the uniqueness of the world were what were keeping him back from using his full Earth potential.

With what could only be described as a roar, the island snake submerged with a splash, leaving Dallion alone in the open. It was catching on to his tactics rather quickly, though it was yet to resort to poison.

Gleam, can you create a few illusions of me?

It wont do any good, the shardfly said, annoyed. Something that size wont be fooled.

I just need something to distract him. Please?

The familiar sighed audibly, then fluttered off to do as she was asked. Given her age, Dallion suspected she would act like the big sister in his realm. Unfortunately for him, he didnt know how right hed turn out.

Trails of glitter followed the shardfly as she flew through the air. Some of them changed into identical copies of Dallion, complete with Luxs wings. One couldnt help but admire the creatures power and beauty. Such magnificence with the power to glamour everything in existence. Like a chameleon only a thousand times better, and someone in a forgotten era had hunted her down to put her in a hand mirror to make peoples' reflections seem a bit prettier.

Dallion summoned another ingot. Before he could have Lux propel it down at the sea, a volley of rocks shot up from beneath the water, aimed in his general direction. Apparently, he wasnt the only one who could learn new tricks.

Shield! Dallion split into seven instances. Most of them avoided the attack, the rest managed to block them with minimum damage. However, that turned out to be only the beginning. More rocks shot up. Some went through the fake Dallions dispersing the dust that created them.

Lux, fly away! Dallion said.

It was a difficult situation, but Lux managed to fly through the rocks into a part of the sky that was clear from threats.

That was close, Gen said. Any news ideas?

A few.

If Vermillion was going to act like a submarine, Dallions only optionsince he didnt have the forging skills or knowledge to create depth chargeswas to force him to get out. And realistically, there were only a few ways to do that.

Harp, Ill need your help again. Dallion summoned the haprsisword.

You dont have the strength to endure another line slash, the harpsisword said. It feels alright now, because youre in an awakened realm. When you get back to the real world, the pain will hit you hard.

In general, that was normal when awakened overstressed themselves in the realms. The first few times Dallion tried to do anything, even simple mending, he had felt utterly exhausted. Apparently, the harpsisword believed that the difference in level was so great that even with her doing the actual action, Dallion would be severely affected. Despite that, he needed to continue this fight.

Just one more, Dallion said.

Once again, the sword moved on its own, slicing air and sea beneath it. Two giant waves formed as the watery surface was split in two like pieces of jelly.

That seemed to calm the creature down to the point that the clusters faded away.

Vermillions are protectors, the dryad went on. They protect things.

That much I know, Dallion smirked.

They also lose connection to the item once its fulfilled its destiny. As happens with every sphere item. That you should also know. The dryad smiled.

Drat! Dallion had skipped that detail. Of course, leveling up the ring would banish its guardian away. That must have happened when the mirror pool had called him to investigate the previous ring. Then why had its form changed into a key? Or maybe that was the point. Dallion got a sudden realization.

Vermillion, can you change the ring into a key? Dallion asked.

The key is always a key, young one. I can only make it possible for the key to open things.

So, you mean that when its a ring it cant do anything?

Theres a lot that you dont know. My role is not to guard anything hidden in the realm, its to make sure that only my owners can open doors through realms.

Nil, know anything about this?

A bit. There are a select number of items that can be taken out of a realm. Of course, youll need a Moons boon for that.

Hold on! You mean I can use this key both in the realms as well as the real world?

Its possible

If what they were saying was true, Dallion had just found a skeleton key that could unlock realms. No wonder that the Star was after it. With something like that, he could enter any realmnot that he had problems in that departmentas well as allow anything to move between realms. In effect, this was a way to free imprisoned creatures. That was why the previous Vermillion was so adamant that it was too late. In its mind, Dallion was after the key to free the copyette.

Come to think of it, the ring had managed to exit a world item and end up in the real world. However, that wasnt a one off. It could go back inside and unlock things that werent meant to be.

What exactly can the key open? Dallion asked.

Any keyhole between realms.

So, I can let all my guardians loose in the real world?

As long as their realms have keyholes, yes. None of yours do.

Dallion was definitely going to have a chat with Aspan on the matter.

There were more than one key capable of that. One was in the possession of the Order of the Seven Moons, a second was with Dallion. Someonepossibly the Starwas doing everything in their power to collect them to free someone. Or maybe Dallion had it all wrong? It was possible that the Star wanted to free himself and escape this world and go into another. If the keys could open locks between realities, they could even open a path to Earth or any of the seven worlds.

The question was whether the Star was the only one searching for them, or were there others involved like the unknown mage, for example