Chapter 255 - Aftermath (2/2)

”No, one good enough,” responded the green-scaled head as it looked with some judgement at the other. ”And papa tired.”

”I'm not tired,” said Li with a smile. ”And you've earned it, managing to beat something this strong.”

He scooped Tia up in his arms again, hugging her and this time placing her around his shoulders where she usually perched.

”Dragon very strong, but Tia stronger,” said green Tia. Black Tia shook her head. ”Papa gave power. Not fair.”

”Hm,” said Li, observing the dynamic between the two heads. He knew they were one and the same person – Tia. But everyone had sides to them, and he surmised that this was like a physical manifestation of that. ”It might not have been fair, but before the transformation, you were beating it. And dragon? Did you think that was a dragon?”

He asked genuinely for he knew his status checking skill would not have worked on whatever the Oculon had turned into. It only ever worked on things that had been in the game, and that was definitely not that. In that sense, Tia and her innate ability to sense into the hearts of others to know what they felt and who they were was far better at identifying than he was.

Both of Tia's heads nodded, and green Tia spoke. ”Was dragon before turning into monster. Old dragon. Waited here for long, long, long time.”

”For centuries, if the old Aarakowa is right,” said Li as he looked out to where oculon had been vaporized. The purple haze still trickled out of the vents and tunnel openings leading into the mountains, but at a far lesser rate than before. The Oculon creature was channeling the haze from the mountains, and without it active anymore, the undead energy did not flow as fiercely. ”But monsters like that do tend to stay in one spot.”

Tia shook her head. ”Dragon wanted to leave. Very much. But had to wait. Guard. Guard for…” She scrunched her brows, trying to remember what she had seen and felt by looking into the Oculon's many eyes after it had transformed. ”For a friend. Close friend.”

”Another to fight!” said black-scaled Tia with thorough enthusiasm.

”Oh, you'll be getting some rest is what you'll be doing,” said Li. ”We have plenty of time to kill going through the mountain, and you'll be taking a break.”

”But papa,” said black-scaled Tia. She pointed to the mountains. ”Friend to fight there.”

”I see,” said Li. Even though it might have been hard to get the gist of what Tia was saying through just her words, he could always understand what she fully meant because of their innate connection.

And this time, he knew that she was saying that the Oculon had not been a creature that manifested randomly as specters of undead energy as was the case in Elden World. It was more a regular undead, formed from a dragon, and a dragon that had been meant to guard this area.

And guard it did, guarding and guarding for centuries, and even when pressed with severe force, it hesitated to retreat, in the end never once considering turning tail and slithering its way into the mountains for refuge.

It guarded for someone. A close friend, as Tia said, or, as Li could surmise, its master. And it was evident that the master still resided within the mountains itself.