Chapter 396: A Miracle

Chapter 396: A Miracle

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-"

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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