Chapter 313 (Patreon)

Chapter 313

The group found another ruin of an ancient demon city on top of the floating island, which confused them a little because it made them curious about how it got there. While exploring, a strange phenomenon was happening below Sophia's feet as small clouds were constantly trying to lift her up. In the middle of the city's plaza, they suddenly turned into a small platform that tried to shoot her high into the air, toward the massive, pearlescent cloud above them. As she was curious about what was going on, the blonde decided to let it happen after telling Maya about it.

“For an overseer, you’re surprisingly gullible.” Sophia was shot into the big, pearlescent cloud and arrived in a large chamber at its center. There, she was greeted by a powerful-sounding female voice.

The tiger suddenly found herself in front of a massive dragon hiding in the cloud. She, from the way her voice sounded, was nowhere near as big as Kel, but she still easily exceeded 50 meters in total length.

Her build was completely different than the water dragon, as well. She still had a somewhat serpentine body with a long tail that was more than half her total length, but she also had four legs and a set of enormous wings, which she was currently presenting to the blonde. The wings were also far from normal, too. Instead of regular tissue, the gaps between her wing bones were filled with what looked like moving cloud matter that was partially see-through in some areas.

Her entire body was covered in sleek scales that shone in the same pearlescent white, blue, and pink hues as the many clouds the group had seen before. It was just the most intense yet on her, and a few hints of orange were mixed in, as well. The scales on the underside of her body were a little bigger than the rest. Along the entire length of her spine, a fur-like cloud in an orange and blue hue decorated the top of her body. Right behind her head, it formed into something that resembled a fluffy mane that was adorned by her two long horns at the top of her head, as well as a couple more smaller ones along the back of her head. Her head was on the smaller side, perfectly adorning her sleek frame as she focused her completely white eyes on the small tiger in front of her.

"Me being gullible has nothing to do with being an overseer or not." Sophia stared back at her while shrugging. “Also, I’m not an overseer.”

“You can’t fool me.” The dragon moved her head closer to the blonde to get an even better look. Her head alone was the size of the tiger, but she wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated. “No normal being could ever achieve as much authority as you have."

“What do you mean?” Sophia cutely tilted her head to the side. “You have more magic than I do.” She was currently hiding her real powers again to match the others in her group by using her portal trick.

“Do you think I’m a fool?” The dragon’s voice turned dry as she bared her massive fangs in response. “I have no idea what you’re exactly doing, but I can literally feel the turbulences you create with the magic around you. I can see how you’re sucking in the magic around you and then putting it somewhere. Judging by the rate you’re doing whatever you’re doing, your authority on magic is several dozen times higher than mine. The only beings with more authority than elder dragons are overseers, so that completely exposes you.”

“Wait, you can see magic particles?!” She was the most surprised about that part.

“I cannot.” The pearlescent dragon shook her head. “However, thanks to my nature, I am extremely sensitive to changes in pressure. On top of that, the entirety of my lair is wrapped in a fine layer of ultra-lightweight clouds. They’re so light that even the movement of magic influences them. It’s even more sensitive directly around me. Look at your feet.”

“Hmm?” Sophia did as she was told and noticed an extremely thin layer of vapor being pulled up her legs, as if being influenced by something.

“That’s not my clouds being friendly. They’re being dragged along by the flow of magic around you.” Her voice turned smug. "You're completely exposed in my domain. There's no use in hiding anything."

“That’s so fascinating!” The tiger’s eyes were sparkling. “I’m still not an overseer, though. I’m nowhere near as powerful, and I don’t have a title, either.” While saying so, she reversed the portal on her neck and instantly returned to her regular authority. “Yes, I have some of their abilities, and I have more authority than normally possible, by a lot, but I'm sure you can tell the difference between me and someone like Mira.”

“Mhmm.” She concentrated on her again. “Yes, compared to her, you indeed feel like a baby. Even so, your authority still puts you above every regular being. So, I assume you're an overseer in training? That’s exciting! I never met an overseer before they officially became one.”

“…” She was getting tired of talking about that topic. “I’m training to get the powers of an overseer. I can go without getting a title.”

“That’s a possibility?”

“I’ll make it one~.” Sophia gave her a cheeky thumbs-up.

“You’re certainly an interesting one.” The dragon sounded impressed. “You definitely have that specific overseer trait, too.”

“Shush.” The tiger rolled her eyes. “You’re also an interesting one, though. I love the pearlescent color you’re rocking and those beautiful wings! So, you’re a cloud dragon?”

“I’m glad to hear that.” She sounded rather proud. “I am Cirrus, the Cloud Elder Dragon. I’m the master of vapor and mist with absolute control over its state, density, and various other physical and magical properties.”

“Like turning clouds into jelly or making them able to lift entire islands high into the sky?”

“Precisely.” Cirrus reacted with a small nod of her big head. “Increasing their density lets me turn them into walls, and magically adjusting their properties to have negative weight to create lift is an easy task for me.”

“That’s so specific and awesome!” Sophia’s eyes were sparkling. “I bet you’re awesome at manipulating the weather then.”

“Indeed, making rain, hail, or creating thunderstorms is a matter of course for me.”

“So cool!” The blonde was a big fan. “Oh, by the way, my name is Sophia. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine.”

“Wait, are you technically a sort of hyper-specialized water dragon, then? I mean, vapor, mist, and clouds are more or less water, right?”

“Your body is 60% water, does that mean you’re a water tiger?”

“I like water, but no.” She shook her head. “So, you’re not related to Kel?”

“Kel?”

“Ah, his full name is Kelrax, the elder water dragon. He’s a good friend of mine.”

“Ohh!” She seemed to remember that name. “Wait! Is that who arrived with you earlier and swam up the waterfall?! The response I got from the clouds around him felt familiar, but his magic seemed off."

“Yeah, he did some fancy experiments with his magic. I guess it has been a while since you last saw him?”

"A while is putting it lightly.” She seemed lost in thought for a second to remember how long it had really been. “Anyway, we’re both in the same category of elder dragons, as we're both water-based, but we’re not exactly related. He governs water in general, while I’m specifically versed in vapor. While it’s mostly water, I control it in its gaseous form as vapor or in combination with air as mist. Especially the latter one makes me not purely water-related. Yes, we all can use multiple elements, but just as Kelrax needs almost no authority to create literal oceans, I can create vapor and mist with next to no cost. For him to create those, he’d need to combine different magic, which would deplete his authority at a normal rate.”

“Ohh, I see!” The blonde was starting to understand the differences. “So, who would win in a fight between you and him?”

“It’s pretty even between us. Many draws, sometimes he was victorious, other times it was me."

“You two fought before?”

“We’re speaking of the same Kelrax, right? The one who always wants to fight when meeting others.”

“Good point.” Sophia nodded a few times. “There’s rarely a day where isn’t exercising with one of my friends.

“He beats me in raw power by a good margin, but I’m quicker, excel at making traps, and have the element of surprise on my side because I can create clouds wherever.”

“Makes sense!”

“Kind of how I got you here before you could even react~.” Cirrus’ voice turned smug again.

“You do know that I let you bring me here, right?” She raised an eyebrow. “I was curious, so I let you catapult me.”

"Sure, that's what they all say afterward ~." The cloud dragon was a playful one.

“Try me~.” So was the tiger.

"As a dragon, there's simply no way for me to back out from a challenge, so there's little I can do here." Even though Cirrus tried to sound indifferent, the excitement was clearly audible in her voice.

The dragon opened her majestic wings even more to look just a little more imposing, but that was merely a distraction. At the very same time she did that, incredibly dense-looking, pearlescent clouds instantly boxed in Sophia and trapped her inside.

“Wow, that was almost close.” The tiger let out a small chuckle. It may’ve seemed like she got trapped and crushed by the clouds, but she suddenly was around 20 meters to the right of where she was before.

“How did you get there?!” She couldn't understand how she hadn't even seen the blonde move.

“My own girlfriend is faster at pouncing me, you know?” Sophia just moved her hand in a come-at-me motion.

Slightly agitated by that, Cirrus increased her pace considerably. She tried to capture Sophia again, but she somehow managed to weasel her way out of it, so the dragon kept creating more and more cloud prisons wherever the tiger appeared, nearly instantly. However, nearly wasn't fast enough for someone who could stop time, so Sophia escaped every single time.

“Got you~.” Sophia kept jumping from place to place until she eventually appeared right in front of the dragon and gently placed her hand on the big scales of her underbelly as if in a game of tag. “You’re faster than Kel, I give you that~.”

“H-How?!” Cirrus was rather distressed over just how out of her league the tiger in front of her seemed and quickly gave up because she realized that she was no match.

With having lost as badly as she did, the pearlescent dragon needed a quick break to heal her bruised ego.