Chp.24: The connection

It was easy to say that we were brave in the face of death. All of them could say that they would not speak even under threat. But once they were actually confronted with death, they very often gave way. The fear of the dead was inherent in every living being, it was an ancestral instinct that nothing and no one could completely overcome. Even those who thought themselves bravest were not immune to it, and often failed when it came the time to prove their resolve.

And among those who managed to remain steadfast in their principles even in the face of death… they gave way when the threatened person was a loved one. It was enough to take a member of their family, or a friend of theirs, or someone close to them, and threaten to tear them apart, and they would obey any order, even the most horrendous. It was also an instinct, the instinct of conservation of the species: in fact, every living being had to stay alive in order to reproduce, and consequently family ties were particularly strong. And unfortunately for them, newcomers could feel similar feelings for people outside their family as well. However, these people were normally an inner circle: if someone had kidnapped a person from that circle and ordered to kill a person outside that circle, the threatened would have done so without a second thought.

The dragons knew this: they had understood it long ago, when they had barely begun to relate to the newcomers. Or rather, Haku understood it, and didn't hesitate to use this weakness against them. He had done it with Sarpa, kidnapping his son to turn him into his puppet. And now, his siblings were following in his footsteps, threatening the adventurers to kill one of their own if they resisted further.

The dragons didn't know if the five adventurers were related, but they certainly cared about each other: that was enough. And indeed, as soon as they threatened to kill Lisah, the others immediately ceased any insults or rebellious thoughts and immediately submitted to them. It was probably just a transitory condition, but it was enough. The dragons could finally ask their questions.

Even though Kotaru had told Maldor to go get the 'prototype', she hadn't moved. But after a few minutes, a strange bipedal creature appeared in the field of vision of the five adventurers. When they realized what it was, they almost had a stroke. "What the... is that a corpse!?" they exclaimed almost in unison.

They weren't wrong. In front of them there was the corpse of a fairy, jerky and almost falling with every step. In the middle of its belly it still had a wound from which part of its intestine was coming out. The corpse stopped in front of the five adventurers, and at that point Kotaru said: "Here's what you have to help us with"

After the adventurers had been stunned, Maldor had revealed her discoveries regarding the hydra's poisonous breath to all. So the dragons had experimented and using Maldor's method they had revived one of the many fairies they carried in their dimensional bags as a food reserve. The experiment had been a success: Maldor was able to control the corpse, but just like in the case of the lizard she was able to make it make only basic movements and no more than one at a time. The result was that she was barely able to make it walk, let alone fly or even converse.

The five adventurers looked shocked and even a little disgusted. "What do you expect us to do with this?" Carlos asked almost spitting blood, not out of fear but because his gum was still bleeding from the previous punch.

"We want to make this thing capable of moving like a normal human being. However, to do that we need to strengthen the psychic link I have with it" Maldor said, taking for the first time. "So we need you to tell us about mind control magic"

"And what are we supposed to do? We're wizards, not necromancers! We have no idea how to make that... thing work!" Martha exclaimed.

"But you know at least some mind control magic" Maldor replied. "We saw you use it against Sisna. So you must know at least something. Tell us what you know, every detail can be useful"

Sarah, Carlos, and Martha looked at Efren, and Lisah would have too if she could move her head. Efren was the only one among them who seemed to have a clear picture of how to act in this situation, so after what had happened just before they clearly wanted to rely on his directives.

Efren himself was somewhat conflicted. He didn't want to help the dragons, knowing that that sort of walking corpse would be used for some malevolent purpose, but if he tried to lie and they found out, they almost certainly would have severed Lisah's arm or killed her outright. Besides, he couldn't waste too much time making up a plausible excuse. For the moment, it was better to be honest: "We know something... but I don't know how much it can be useful to you"

"You just talk. We'll decide if what you will say will be useful or not" Rhaegal growled, and lightly pressed his paw to Lisah's head, as if to warn him not to try to fool them.

Efren gulped, then began to explain: "I'm not an expert, so what I'm going to tell you is the little basic knowledge that exists in our kingdom about mind control magic. There are three ways to use it. The first is what I used, and it's not a real mind control, but more a blurring of the senses. It consists of compressing the air to create certain frequencies that disturbed the brain, causing nausea, hallucinations, dizziness or other ailments. A more experienced magician than me he could even use this technique to put thoughts that are not his own into a person's mind and convince them that they are"

The dragons nodded. That explanation seemed to make sense, since it would explain the mysterious shock wave that had erupted from Efren's body and hit Sisna causing her to feel nauseous, so at least she wasn't lying about that. However, that method couldn't be used by dragons: apparently you needed a spell to make it work, and of course they couldn't do it since they hadn't yet unlocked their domain.

"The second way is to use dark magic or death magic" Efren continued. "In this case I know practically nothing. These types of magic are bestowed upon mortals by the gods, and only a few know how to use them. The chosen of the gods, which are the legendary levels, can have complete control over entire legions of individuals without any problem; those who instead learn this magic from them, without the help of the gods, can at most control five or six people. It is what necromancers or sorcerers use"

There were many things the dragons didn't understand in that explanation: dark magic, death magic, the fact that some could use them and some couldn't. However, they could understand that those types of magic were related to the gods, and they absolutely didn't want to attract their attention. They agreed with Haku that the gods were potentially their most dangerous enemies, so it was best to avoid using magic related to them.

"Finally, the third method. It consists of creating an artificial connection between two individuals" Efren continued to explain. "I don't know much about how it works, but it allows you to use objects or monster parts to build a conduit that connects two people's minds. It's what is used to create golems, and is also used a lot by necromancers, sorcerers and so on when they don't have access to dark magic or death magic"

The dragons lit up. If there was a way to create an artificial connection channel, then that was exactly what they were looking for! "The third method is the one we use" Maldor said. "We used hydra venom mixed with my blood to create a connection between this body and me. Now, how do we improve it?"

Efren looked somewhat shocked. "Did you use hydra venom?" he asked in amazement.

"It's a long story" Maldor cut him short. "Just answer the question"

Efren remembered only then that he was not in a position to investigate. His job was just to talk. "Well... let me think for a second" he said. "You said you mixed hydra venom with some of your own blood, right?"

"Yes, that's right" Maldor confirmed.

"So... from what I know about this topic, which is very little, three ingredients are needed to create a mental connection" Efren said. "One of them is something that bridges the two minds, and I'd say in this case it's the poison of the hydra. The second is a little bit of blood from both people...but since one of them is a corpse, I doubt that will help. Indeed, you have already established your connection. Now, it will become better based on the last ingredient... a large amount of mana"

Maldor looked somewhat surprised. "Is that all? Just a lot of mana?"

Efren shook his head. "It's not that simple actually. The amount of mana needed is really huge, if you want to create a perfect connection. For this reason generally those who create golems do it under the recommendation of a rich person, since they are the only ones able to get magic items that contain enough power, and even then it's often not enough to create a stable, flawless connection. In fact, it's a miracle that thing works" he said looking at the walking corpse. "The hydra's venom and your blood must be really mana-rich if only using these two things made it move so much. Normally using only the first two ingredients would make your fingers move at best". He shrugged. "I told you, the information I can give you won't do you much good"

"Oh, you say?" Maldor chuckled. "Maybe getting a lot of mana is a problem for you... but not for us"

The dragon started rummaging in its dimensional bag, and then pulled out a huge piece of meat, so big that as soon as it was out it landed on the ground with a thud. The adventurers looked at it well and realized with astonishment that it was the finger of a gigantic beast. Maldor began to collect some of the blood that had formed on the cut parts. Efren couldn't hold back his curiosity: "What is that?"

"The greatest source of mana in the world... the blood of an adult dragon" Maldor answered with satisfaction. "It's frozen and it's not exactly fresh, but it sure is still usable"

She and her siblings had three dragon corpses with them: their father, their mother, and a third dragon they did not know and had already found dead in Neytiri's territory. Even though they had been dead for a long time, the refrigerators inside the dimensional bags prevented them from corrupting, and furthermore they had all already been able to see that the mana in the body parts of a dragon persisted very long even after death.

If the blood of a baby dragon combined with the poisonous breath of a hydra could animate a corpse into basic movements, what could the blood of an adult dragon do?

The adventurers were nothing short of shocked. "That's a dragon's finger!?" they exclaimed looking at the big piece of meat.

"It belonged to our father" Maldor replied by placing it back in her dimensional bag after drawing enough blood. She didn't even look at the adventurers' reaction: she was too intent on finding out if it would work. Very quickly she cut herself and took some of her blood, and then mixed it with the hydra's poison; as soon as the two blended together, she set about adding adult dragon blood as well.

"Wait!" Kotaru exclaimed. "Adding blood to a mixture that already contains blood... shouldn't that create a connection with our father as well, technically?"

Maldor thought about it for a moment. "Well… technically the hydra's poison breath also comes from its blood. I assume it only works with live creatures. So since our father is dead there shouldn't be a problem" she said as she added the blood to the mix. The liquid boiled and seemed about to explode for an instant, then it subsided. Maldor looked at the fairy's corpse. "Let's try!" she exclaimed, and she threw it on its face.

The corpse stirred for a moment, then returned to life. Maldor tried to mentally command him to move an arm. Immediately, the corpse made a smooth, flawless motion, quite in contrast to the stiff ones it had previously. Maldor tried to command it to get up, walk and even jump, and the corpse complied without hesitation. "It works! We did it!" she exclaimed exultantly, then she closed her eyes for a moment. But mysteriously her sight didn't vanish, but simply changed, as if she had suddenly changed position.

"Uh? Wait a minute… how deep is our connection?" Maldor murmured, and then tried to expand her consciousness towards the corpse, trying to imagine herself controlling it. It happened in an istant: suddenly, her body was no longer big, quadrupedal and covered with scales, but instead she was standing on two legs, her skin was soft and fleshy, and her senses had completely changed. "Guys... it's amazing!" she exclaimed, but her voice came not from het dragon body but from the corpse she was controlling.

His siblings were jaw dropping. "M-Maldor? Are you inside that thing?" Darbi exclaimed.

"No… I can still feel my real body. I believe my consciousness is still there, but that the connection between me and this corpse is so strong that it is similar to that between the head and the arm" Maldor replied, looking her real body. At that moment it seemed she was sleeping. She tried to imagine going back inside it and immediately she was a dragon again, while the corpse she was controlling fell to the ground motionless. She tried to go back into it, and immediately the corpse revived and she was checking it. "Guys, we did it! Do you realize?"

The adventurers were shocked too, especially Efren. He had never heard of such a deep connection before, except in the case of using dark magic. How powerful was the blood of an adult dragon?

After an initial moment of bewilderment, the other dragons cheered. "Now we can finally go among the newcomers!" Kotaru exclaimed over the moon.

"Yes!" Maldor exulted with a smile, and she almost fell to the ground from too much momentum. "Damn! How can you newcomers walk on two legs!?"