Adventures of the last Wild Dragon

Chapter 258 258: Mountain Mysteries

The wind carried a slightly salty scent from the ocean creating a uniquely intriguing atmosphere for the girls as they closed in on the first of the mountain peaks.

As they got within range they extended their presences, initially surprised by the distance that they could now spread them. If before they could extend their presences around 20-30 meters now they could easily reach 50 meters in diameter.

With the aid of their enhanced presence the companions both visually and 'spiritually' examined the peak as Violet slowly circled it in the air.

From a visual perspective their was nothing special about this peak, it was rocky and bereft of life as most mountain peaks were. Yet to their magical senses and presence they thought they caught the lingering sense of something, it disappeared just as soon as they picked it up yet it had caught their attention and they were unwilling to disregard something like that.

Violet redirected her flight to land on a small plateau of sorts, she was forced to reduce her size as she approached due to how small the ledge was.

Still she managed to land on it, her claws scraping against the stone. A flash of light later and Violet was once more in her humanoid form, finding it to be a bit cumbersome to walk up steep cliffs as a dragon.

"Where did you sense it?"

"It was near by but I'm not exactly sure to be honest, it disappeared so fast I would have thought I imagined it if you hadn't sensed the same thing." Luna mused as she stared at the rocky slope.

"Well I suppose we should start looking around then."

Like that the two began their investigation, they began by climbing their way further up towards another small cliff edge, all the while their senses were on full blast as they searched for the source of the earlier blip.

Yet even after they had circumnavigated the entire peak neither of them had discovered anything of note, it was enough to cause them to truly begin doubting weather they had felt anything in the first place at all.

However, almost exactly 30 minutes since they first felt the blip they suddenly felt a small muted burst of aura coming from within the mountain. This time as they were much closer they were able to near instantly lock onto the general location from where it originated.

The two companions quickly made their way over to the small ledge from where the surge scoured, before them stood an unassuming stretch of barren rock, they could neither see or feel anything different from the location.

Even when Violet fired a void bolt into the wall nothing more than the erasure of some stone occluded leaving the two girls even more confused.

"What is going on?"

"I have no idea, but didn't that surge feel somewhat familiar to you?" Asked Luna as she glared at the rock in speculation.

"Familiar? In what way?"

"It kind of felt similar to how Rhyana and Vithrax felt, as in it felt draconic in nature."

"Eh but it doesn't feel similar to mine?"

"Well kind of yeah, I don't really know how to explain it but your presence feels distinctly different from theirs even though it holds some familiarity. But either way I have a feeling that this place is somehow related to dragons I just have no idea how." Luna explained somewhat awkwardly, not quite sure how to explain her impressions.

"Hmm so maybe their is some kind of magic that prevents none dragons from entering?" Violet mused to herself as she stared once more at the mountain slope. "Okay let me try something then."

Then Violet activated her dragon aura skill and her presence suddenly bloomed to unprecedented heights. Her will acting as a conduit for her strength to be put on display.

At first nothing happened almost causing the girls to give up any hope. Yet just before Violet began to retract her presence imbued aura the two girls felt a responding surge of pressure coming from deep within the mountain.

This time Violet was instantly able to telll that the presence was draconic in nature, yet she also felt that it felt somehow… hollow. Violet found the feeling hard to describe but their was something that made the presence feel lacking in some way.

She was about to bring that point up to Luna but found her words stuck in her throat when the entire mountain slope before them began to flicker in and out of existence.

The area that began to fade was absolutely massive, it easily surpassed 50 by 50 meters wide and high. Large enough for a truly giant dragon with ease.

The wall continued to flicker in and out existence for several more seconds before fully vanishing and revealing a vast cave leading deeper into the mountain.

The peaks of these mountains, were quite large, yet somehow to cave within this peak seemed to extend deeper into the mountain that should be possible.

Violet quietly mentioned that fact to Luna who blinked in surprise, then frowned as she tried to make sense of exactly how that could be possible. "Hu, that is weird. Do we still want to go in?"

Violet let out a slow breath as she considered their options. "Yeah I think we should, I want to know more about this place." As she said that she took her first steps into the cave before her form was enveloped in purple light as she reverted back into her natural form.

Luna hesitated for a moment before she too opted to follow Violet's lead and changed back herself.

So it was that the two beasts, one dragon and one arctic leopard advanced into the impossibly deep cave.

**

Olivia stood at the eastern gate of Cragkieth as she stared down at the peculiar gemstone that supposedly would direct her towards Violet and Luna. She had some misgivings about how the Elder had such an item, or why she would entrust it to herself.

Still she had decided that she would leave the city and head out with her new friends to search for the missing duo.

"Hey you ready to go?" Came a familiar voice from behind her, turning she saw Rhyana and Susan approaching.

"Y-yeah, yes I'm ready." She said, wishing she could someday escape being so nervous all of the time.

"And your sure that, that gem will point us towards Violet?" Asked Susan as she too stared at the heavily inscribed stone with interest.

"Yes, it should do that." She answered, trying to sound as sure as possible.

"Well let's hope that it does as stated eh?" Rhyana quipped. "Would be annoying if we eneded up just missing them!"

Just then another pair of people approached the trio, at the lead was the familiar figure of Commander Masin and besides him was his only subordinate still alive after that catastrophic explosion, Olivia believed that the man's name was Steve and that he was a scout of some sort.

Of the two men Masin had definitely come away the worse from that climactic battle. He had lost his left arm from the elbow down, whilst he was slowly regrowing it with the aid from Susan the process would take weeks, especially since no truly high leveled healers were available on short notice.

Other than that he seemed mostly fine past a few new scars.

Olivia was decked out in her usual armour, sadly she had to give up her helm as it had been reduced to scrap metal much to her annoyance. She missed the feeling of security that it provided her, plus it helped her hide her reactions somewhat from others when she got embarrassed.

"Greetings, are we all ready to set out?" Masin asked when he got close enough.

"Ready as we will ever be I think." Answered Susan with a small smile as she nodded at both Masin and Steve. "How's the arm?"

He shrugged slightly. "Well it still feels odd not to be able to hold a shield, but I suppose that Olivia will just have to stand in for me if we get into any fights." He chuckled good naturedly.

"So you are all fine with heading to Syan first, then assuming we don't find Violet and Luna there we can discuss options there." Masin asked.

Rhyana and Susan shared a quick glance between themselves before looking in her direction, Olivia blinked for a moment before nodding slightly.

That prompted Susan to speak up once again. "Yes we are happy with that plan, it will be nice to have someone that will be able to easily guide us. Most of our exploration of the Endless Forest so far has just been blind wandering. Will be nice to actually know where we are going for a change!"

"Ha! Well that is something we will be able to do. Now shall we be off?"

With that said the new group of 5 exited from the gates of Cragkieth as they headed off in search of lost friends.