Chapter 155: A Horrible Sensation

    Early Evening - Late Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor

    "I''m here to make a deal."

    Piercing straight through my instinct, her words filled my mind with a deep and distracting confusion. -W..wh..what?-

    I stared at the ancient with a look of bewilderment.

    Seeing me stop fighting back, she slowly let go of my tail. "Sorry if I scared you. I got a bit excited after finally finding you."

    It was as if my brain was stun locked. I simply didn''t know what to say. "W..why were you looking for me?" As much as I hated to admit it, I was plainly inferior to such an overpowering and domineering dragon. The difference in our strength was so vast that I wasn''t sure if even nuclear would work. -What could she possible need me for..-

    "Before I can get to that, let me do something." Quickly closing her eyes, she started moving a disgusting amount of mana to create a brutally inefficient space rune. It looked like she tried to copy one of the space runes left by Bahamut through pure brute force.

    -She wants to isolate us?- Although the rune she was making was extremely crude, it did indeed create space mana, just instead of making a gate, it made a cloud that just warped our surroundings.

    "Here, let me do it.." Finally snapping out of my mental stun, I dissipated her rune and created a gate, just instead of sending us to the void, I kept us inside the gate.

    "How did you.." She looked around in awe as our surroundings vanished into a pure darkness.

    "Hooh.." I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before I spoke. "If you wanted to kill me, Id already be dead so..."

    "R..right. An old friend sent me to make a deal with you." She turned to me with a determined look.

    "Why didn''t your friend come themselves?" -And who is that friend to be able to send you?- I was already skeptical.

    "Well, it''s not that simple... In any case, let''s get down to business." Her face quickly became serious. "I need you to kill someone."

    There was a short and painful silence that wrapped around us. "Excuse me?"

    "I know it sounds crazy, but my friend said it was someone that threatened her life that even I can''t kill." The desperateness and worry in her voice felt genuine but it just threw me off.

    -If its someone that even you can''t kill.. then the f*ck am I supposed to do?- "You must be mixing me up with someone else. I''d be killed by you in a heartbeat, let alone someone even stronger."

    "Well, I felt the same but after seeing you in person, I''m starting to think it''s possible. You’re fundamentally different after all."

    -What... How does she..- Questions ran through my mind, one after another, but I couldn''t think of an answer for any of them.

    Before I could finish thinking, she opened her mouth and pulled out a weird looking purple sphere with trillions of black, moving tubes inside of it. -A hypersphere?!- It instantly reminded me of the tesseract I saw when I first reincarnated. The color, and design on its shell was the exact same.

    As I was staring at it, she casually threw out another bombshell. "The fact you recognize this is proof that you''re the person she told me to look for."

    The instant I realized what she said, I felt a shock of electricity course through my body. -The only people that know about that are Mother and Father..-

    "The man you need to kill is named Magni. I don''t know too much about him either, but ‘you''ll know him when you meet him’."

    -God.. I wish she''d stop throwing up red flags..- Under no circumstances was this a deal I should take. The request was too outlandish and vague, and the contractor was someone who knew far too much about me. -But I really need that artifact..-

    As I eyeballed the hypersphere, I tried to clarify something. "So.. that artifact.."

    Even today, I can vividly remember the feeling of powerlessness mix with the feeling of sinking into the ocean..

    What a horrible combination that was..

    Once I finally woke up, I could only feel cold, dry sand beneath me. -Huh.. w..where am I..- Looking around, I noticed I was laying next to Ilios in some kind of underwater bubble, but even though there wasn''t any light, I could see extremely clearly.

    -So my thoughts have sped up, and my vision got better..- I was quick to notice the two obvious changes, but I didn''t take the time to think much about it. There was something much more urgent weighing on my mind. -How long has it been?-

    Normally, my internal clock (instinct) would tell me how long it had been even if I was in a dragon sleep, but this time, I was completely in the dark. -Sitting here and thinking about it wont do me any good though..-

    As I slowly sat up, I accidentally woke up Ilios.

    *lick-lick-lick-lick*

    Without even seeing him wake up or move, I got assaulted by his licks.

    "Haha, I''m alright, I''m alright." I tried to calm him down by petting him before things got out of hand. Once things finally calmed down, I mumbled under a guilt filled breath. "It doesn''t help that I don''t know how long you were left alone this time.."

    As if understanding what I said, Ilios casually backed up and wrote in the sand.

    ''IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIII'' (6 and 12 tallies) He sat down and gave a proud look when he finished writing.

    -Gosh.. so it''s been 6 months... WAIT WHAT?!- Although just two sets of tallies, it quickly reminded me about how smart he was. -I guess he is an Ancient Fenrir...- "Did anything major happen while I was asleep?"

    Ilios tilted his head slightly.

    -I guess that question was a bit..- Before my thought could finish though, Ilios created a bright spotlight and illuminated everything outside of the bubble. -What is he..-

    Outside of the bubble was the seafloor, an endless and dark abyss of sand and rock, but around a hundred meters away, there were several massive tentacles, lining the ground.

    Not quite understanding what happened, I looked down at Ilios to see him puffing up his chest. -Haha.. why is he..- It took a moment for everything to click. "YOU KILLED THAT?!"

    A broad smile came to Ilios''s face as he gave a strong nod.

    I sat in awe for a moment before a pure pride washed over me. "Good job, Buddy! To think youre so strong now!" I excitedly leaned down and rubbed my head against him. "Next time there is a big fight, it might be you protecting me!"

    But Ilios didn''t seem to like that idea. "Arw.."

    Hearing the odd noise he made, I pulled away from him a bit. "Hm? What''s wrong?"

    Casually lifting his paw, he pointed to me and swirled his mana around the bubble.

    -What is he..- "You want me to use magic?"

    He gave a strong nod before giving a look of anticipation.

    "A..alright... What kind of magic d-" I cut myself off as soon as I started controlling and reading my aura. -What.. the..-