Summa Mensura (2) part 2

"Toothless-"

"No." Toothless repeated herself. "You will not martyr yourself. You will not leave me."

"Toothless, we don't have anything to fight him." Hiccup tried to reason. "And besides, Merciless' your brother. The faster he won against Northern Alliance, the faster we can be safe."

"No. I'll talk to my brother." The mother dragon in human form decided. "I'll give him some words, and he'll let us through."

There was a pause. The boy felt fear and anxiety through their bond. "I thought you don't like him." Hiccup questioned. "When was the last time you talked with him?"

"We haven't talked since our mother died." Toothless quietly admitted. She looked uncomfortable. "Just thinking about him brings bad memories."

"We'll think of something else." Hiccup decided to change the subject.

"No. I have to do this." The dragoness in human form shuddered her breath. She stared at the eyes of her mate. "Three years ago, both of us faced the impossible. We can, because we dared to do it."

The boy fell silent. Toothless continued speaking. "Over 70 dragons died fighting legions of humans. We did it to fight for our survival." She slowly raised her voice. "Our victory taught the most important lesson of all. Those who dare, wins!"

Hiccup widened his eyes. He did not expect that from Toothless. The mother dragon in human form saw his reaction. "... that's the lesson I get from that fight." She admitted, embarrassed at her outburst. "If I can face down thousands of humans, I can face my brother and talk to him."

However, the boy was deep in thought. That phrase reminded him of something. "Those who dare, wins..." He muttered. "... an expression of daring things thought to be impossible..."

That confused Toothless. "Charcoal?" She asked, concerned. "Are you okay?"

Hiccup tapped the table. Two certain dragon-scaled books appeared. He observed the symbols on its cover. "... thought to be a metaphor made by scholars of Grand Library of Baghdad. They said there was no solution." The boy widened his eyes. "But I solved the puzzle!"

Before she could ask, the boy stood from the chair and rushed to a large wooden chest nearby. It was right next to a bookshelf; it was full of books and other trinkets. Hiccup rummaged through the trinkets, before pulling out what he was looking for.

After finding that, Hiccup returned to his seat. He placed the object onto the table. "Here."

It was a certain metal dice. The dice had 12 sides. It had a lot of intricate carvings and moving parts. Every side had buttons, which had animal shapes carved on them, along with some symbols. There was pattern on those symbols.

The boy began comparing the animal shapes on the dice and the books. "They have the same exact carvings." He realised. "Volume 2 has a dog, and Volume 7 has a snake."

Toothless widened her eyes. "A puzzle." She realised. "Charcoal, where did you get that?"

"It was a gift from someone four years ago." Hiccup responded as he inspected the dice. He compared the symbols with the two draconic books. "Twelve-sided dice. Twelve books. Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and boar."

The mother dragon turned human widened her eyes. "The Chinese zodiac."

Toothless was familiar with the story. The Chinese tale of the Jade Emperor, who was said to be the emperor of heaven. It was rumoured that the Jade Emperor was a serpent dragon god; the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, one of the Three Pure Ones - the highest gods of all.

At least, according to Taoist theology.

Meanwhile, Hiccup was pressing buttons and rotating the dice. Soon enough, there was a click, and the certain Mithril coin was revealed inside. He popped out the coin and closed the dice. There was another click as it fell shut. Suddenly, the previously fixed buttons could be pressed.

"It was said to be made by scholars from Grand Library of Baghdad. They call them House of Wisdom." The boy muttered as he inspected the puzzle dice. "It was in possession of Abbasid Empire in Arab world, until the Mongols sacked them."

"That doesn't make any sense." Toothless was confused. "The zodiac is exclusively Chinese. It's more related to Taoist theology. Why would Islamic scholars made this dice?"

"I don't know. We'll probably never find out." Hiccup admitted as he worked on the puzzle. He pulled the seventh volume book and opened them. "The zodiac sequence on the books is in reverse. The first page should have the answer..."

The boy pondered as he carefully compared the page with the puzzle dice. "It's an instruction!" Hiccup realised. Following the pattern on the book, he pressed the buttons at the dice. There was a slight click each time he pressed them. "... three uppers left... two down... three upper right- wait, no. That's down."

Suddenly, there was a loud, audible click. The twelve-sided dice had popped open a thin slot at one of its corners. It looked like the Mithril coin could fit inside.

Hiccup inserted the coin, and the slot snapped close. Something moved rapidly inside as the pattern changed on its own. Then, Hiccup felt one of the buttons become loose.

Clink!

Something fell onto the table. It had fallen from the snake-shaped button, which popped itself open like a window. Hiccup carefully picked up the object. It was an intricate piece of golden scale. "Oh, I think I know where this goes."

The boy closed the button and pocketed the dice. He closed the seventh volume book and inspected the snake carving. There was a missing piece at its head. It looked like a mistake during carving.

Hiccup carefully placed the missing piece into its place. When he did, he felt a prick on his finger. "Ow!"

A drop of blood fell onto the book. It seemed to absorb the blood as the whole thing began to shimmer blue. Hiccup and Toothless watched as the book began to change. The red scales turned black, identical to Night Fury. It was also getting bigger and thicker in pages.

When the light show ended, the book had become massive. It was about 60 centimetres height and 45 centimetres wide. The most intimidating thing was its thickness; it was about 25 centimetres thick. The book was far bigger than anything they ever had.

"Okay..." Hiccup was hesitant. He carefully opened the book, revealing the first page. It was so big, the book occupied half the table. Toothless leaned to check the content.

It was written in Norse.

"Of course. It's a draconic book." Hiccup realised as he flipped to the next page. It was the table of content. They were all written in Norse. "It can adapt depending on who unlocked them. Nobody has ever unlocked the puzzle until now."

Toothless sharply inhaled. "I think the book can update itself." She pointed at one of the subtitles at the table of content. "This topic was discovered just few months ago. If the book is ancient, it's not supposed to have this."

"It took my blood when I unlocked them." The boy grabbed the second volume. He dragged his bleeding finger over the golden scales. "That means..."

As expected, the book absorbed his blood. It began to shimmer blue and began to change. The red scales turned black, and the book grew bigger and thicker in pages. When it ended, the book was roughly the same size as the seventh volume, but roughly two times the thickness.

Opening the second volume, they realised that the text was written in Norse. It even had a table of content, which was not there before. It explained the topic of Life-Force as a whole, including how it connects to mana and its circuits.

There was even topics most dragons considered deviant.

"Of course!" Hiccup realised, excited. "It adapts when given dragon blood. I can update them with my blood!"

Toothless moved to grab the second volume. She flipped some pages, before nodding. "It has all the latest Life-Force techniques." She remarked, before pulsing her mana. There was a reply, but no returned information. "... this is not a regular dragon book. This is an artefact."

Hiccup put the dice away. He opened the seventh volume book and read the first few pages.

The seventh volume of 'Mana: Principles, Techniques and Tools' book was all about artifice. It discussed all sorts of mechanical mana things. While there was a topic on dragonsmithing, it was dwarfed by many other topics, such as mana constructs, prosthetics, metals and crystals.

The boy pulled other books from his mana storage. They appeared on the table with blue flame. Hiccup opened the Gemstone and Alchemy book; he cross-referenced the crystals and found them accurate. The seventh volume dragon book was far more complete.

It even had information on how to make rare crystals.

However, the dragon book lacked examples. It had methods, classifications, descriptions and technical specifications, but no examples of what they could be used for. The Gemstone and Alchemy book was superior in that aspect.

"... I don't think I can learn all this in a decade." Hiccup admitted as he read the first couple pages. "This massive book has over 2,000 pages. The table of content itself is about 50 pages long. With the text this small, you can fit about 10,000 words in a page."

Toothless leaned to read the table of content. "Some of those topics were considered lost during the War of Desperation." She whispered, excited to know more. "Charcoal, we're in possession of forgotten knowledge!"

The boy read the table of content. Each page had four different columns dedicated to outline the information within the book. He noted the numbers in bracket next to the headings. "That doesn't look like pages."

The dragoness in human form had closed the second volume dragon book. She was focused on what Hiccup was reading. "That's because it's the year of their discovery." Toothless explained. "It uses Gregorian calendar, because that's what you know."

That explained the date, but something was missing. "They don't look consistent." Hiccup noted when he compared the years. "Most discoveries are made around this date. What's so important here?"

"That's the exact year when the Oppressive War started." Toothless explained the historical reason. "Not all dragons know how to cast spells back then, so everyone turned to artifice for answers. Even humans are looking into it. The knowledge on crystal creations are all that's left."

"All that knowledge were lost during the war." Hiccup whispered, staring at the open book. "... there must be hundreds of thousands of researchers who dedicated their lives in their field, only to die and lost the knowledge... never to be seen again..."

"Until now." The girl finished the sentence. "Artifice grew so much because of how versatile they are. It's also incredibly useful for dragons that barely knew anything about mana."

"They made sure dragons could stand a chance against humans of old." The boy muttered, realising the purpose of such invention. "They want dragons to keep on fighting. Necessity became the mother of all invention."

"Mmhmm." Toothless hummed as she opened the second volume dragon book. The dragoness in human form moved aside for some room. "Let's see what this one has."

The couple fell silent. The dragoness in human form engrossed herself to read the second volume dragon book. Hiccup looked down at the book in front of him.

He realised how powerful those books really were.

It was a shame that humans and dragons lost the knowledge they made because of the war. They were lucky to find and discover their knowledge. Hiccup felt honoured to learn the long, forgotten knowledge. It must be preserved and used with care.

Hiccup decided to do just that. Checking the table of contents, he searched for any military-related artifice creation. The mana construct category had plenty of things related to that. He would have to check which part that might be useful for them.

He mentally noted the page number, before flipping pages on the book. He skimmed through sections and its descriptions. The bio-armour was no different than draconic armour; the Tiberius Device was too destructive; and he already invented the draconic cannon.

After countless topics, Hiccup finally found what he was looking for.

The Sheldon 2A5 was a biological mana construct. It was created during the Oppressive War, and that variant was the last of its kind. They were used as substitute for greater alpha dragon, in case the greater alpha was assassinated before an assault.

The construct was more of a second form for dragons. It was kept as part of their mana circuit, allowing them to turn back into their original form. This made them permanently part of themselves. The only way to remove them was to burn their mana circuit.

At that point, they might as well be dead.

The specification stated that Sheldon construct was well over one kilometres tall. Given rough measurement of Furious' true form, the construct should be big enough to fight against him. It might take two constructs to decisively win the fight.

It was also easy to make. They had to perform a ritual with the dragon inside. The main challenge was the resource. It asked for plenty of crystals, some of which he did not have. The ritual also asked for kilograms of wyrmsteel.

"This one." Hiccup decided, pointing at the header. "It could help us fight Furious."

Toothless turned her attention to read the content. Her eyes widened upon reading the classification. "Biological mana construct." She whispered. "I thought they were myths."

"Well, myths often have some truths in them."

"It was described in stories of the Oppressive War. There were tales about enormous behemoths used by both humans and dragons." The dragoness in human form explained the context. She was awed at the knowledge. "If we have this, we can actually win against him!"

Hiccup pulled out his journal and began copying information. "We're going to need plenty of resource to do this." He muttered as he write. "We have most of the important ones, like Heart Stone. We need something called Astral Grain."

Toothless widened her eyes. "I can see why it's powerful." She commented. "A single grain could power layers with mana for centuries."

"What do you know about it?"

"Astral Grain is as the name says. It's a crystal with the shape and size of a wheat grain." The dragoness explained. "I'd describe them as generally dark pink. The saturation changes when you move them, and you can see moving stars inside."

Hiccup stared with blank expression. "You've seen one before?"

"It's a finite resource. The creation method was lost in time." Toothless answered the question. "The Nocrenia layer in Hidden World has an ancient mana reactor powered with an Astral Grain. They let researchers see them for study."

The boy had finished copying the information. He closed his journal and pocketed them. "It's common, then."

"No. There's only 28 grains left in the world." Toothless admitted.

Hiccup bookmarked the page with a random paper from the table. After that, he checked the table of content, before finding the Astral Grain header. The boy flipped to the page and skimmed through the lines.

It was after several paragraphs that Hiccup realised something. The first section of its creation method was the full summary of how it was made. There were roughly five thousand manufacturing steps to make a single grain, most of which requires highly skilled dragons to perform.

The dragoness in human form was leaning to read them. She winced when she realised the same thing. "It's going to take decades to make a single grain." Toothless commented. "We'll have better luck searching for them in Hidden World."

Hiccup flipped back to the Sheldon construct page. "I think we should continue working on the draconic cannon." He noted as he pushed the bookmark away. "I'll send Gryphon to find the grain tomorrow. I doubt she'll find one, but it's worth a shot."

Suddenly, they heard commotion outside.

Hiccup closed the two dragon books. He pulled the two books and the metal dice into his storage mana. After they vanished in blue flame, the boy headed to the wooden double door exit. Toothless followed him behind.

Exiting the room, they noted the lack of Vikings around the place. Gobber was busy talking with someone near the entrance.

It was a male Meathead Viking; they knew from the crest he wore. The man was holding a parchment, and he did not look happy.

The boy was the first one to approach. "Gobber?" He called, getting their attention. "What's going on?"

"Ah, just some money problem." The blacksmith assured him. "Stoick just left to find Alex. We couldn't pull money out of treasury without him."

The Meathead Viking decided to speak. "We couldn't leave without the money unless ye traded with somethin'." He explained the situation. "We couldn't put them on tabs, either. We have other things to finance. Chief Mogadon's orders."

Hiccup tilted his head. "How much was it?"

"155 rigslader coin." The Meathead Viking answered.

The boy crossed his arms. "Do you accept British pound?"

"Aye."

Hiccup pulled something out from his pouch. Those were four double sovereign British gold coins. The boy handed them over to the Meathead Viking. "Here. Eight pounds."

The two Vikings widened their eyes. "Odin's beard." The Meathead Viking was holding the coins. He recognised what those were. "You have the sovereign. How did ye..."

"I know how to earn money." Hiccup responded. Specifically, he exchanged some of his English noble gold for sovereign coins from a British merchant. The nobles were worth much more due to weight and composition, according to their own gold standard. "That should pay for everything."

The Meathead Viking carefully weighted them with his hand. "... these are far more than enough."

"Then we're getting every iron metal you have." Hiccup crossed his arms. "How long will they arrive?"

"A- About two days." The Meathead Viking was nervous. He did not expect to handle so much money all sudden. "But we don't have that much iron to cover these!"

"Then pile in every charcoal, wood and coal you have to cover the rest; in that order." The boy gave his request. "I want them here as soon as you can."

Gobber finally found his words to speak. "Hiccup." He started, getting their attention. "What are ye going to do with all that?"

"Oh!" The Meathead Viking suddenly remembered. "Ye need to give a reason. These are way more than we have!"

Hiccup thought that made sense. He thought for a response, before remembering what Gobber told him before. Spitelout considered Furious a god because of his eldritch abilities, at least according to Gobber. Had other Vikings heard of him, they might consider him a god.

"Alright. I'll give him the reason." The boy responded. He stared at the Meathead Viking with serious expression. "Tell Chief Mogadon that we are going to kill a god."

After everything was sorted out, Hiccup and Toothless worked on the smeltery all day.

Making adjustments on the draconic cannon was surprisingly easy enough. They simply added some Night Fury scales and some crystals to make it fire plasma blast.

The main challenge was adding speed-to-lethal dial. Hiccup had to write the calculation formula, and Toothless used crystals to ensure its implementation in the draconic cannon.

Regardless, it took them couple hours to get done. When that was finished, Toothless went off to take care of the hatchlings with Amber. Hiccup worked at the smeltery to make semi-draconic weapons.

When the night fell, Hiccup decided to sleep at the cove. After burning the surface for their bed, he slept together with his family in his draconic form. The male dragon fell asleep while wishing for better future ahead.

However, he appeared in a strange dream.

Charcoal was standing at a clearing on top of a high, cold mountain. He thought it was the same place when he heard the voice. However, he was not floating, and there was actually something to see. It was bright and sunny with some low clouds. The wind was not that strong, either.

"What do you think?"

Charcoal jumped when he heard that voice. Furious was approaching to stand next to him. He stared ahead as he waited for answer. The young dragon did not know what to say.

Looking ahead, Charcoal realised the mountain was within the alps. He looked down to see green lands, some forests and clear ocean. There were alpine villages; places built at the land around the alps. The young dragon had never seen this place before.

"It's beautiful." Charcoal whispered. "Where is this?"

"This is the Swiss Alps in Switzerland." Furious answered. He was staring down at the villages. "About five hundred years ago, I brought Delia here when seeing the surface world. This is the exact spot when we declared our love together."

The young dragon softened his expression. The visual was not real; they were in his mind. Charcoal knew the fake memory had the possibility to be used as some sort of communication path for Furious.

However, Charcoal knew why he brought him there. "You want my answer."

"No." Furious answered. He turned around to face the young dragon. "There's something important you must know. What makes Haddock Night Fury special."

The young dragon adjusted his position. "Is this about my inherited ability?"

"Yes. It's your right to know." The greater alpha answered. Yellow eyes stared at the forest green ones. "... Mimir wasn't dead when I merged him with you. He was in this... strange vegetative state where he lost his higher brain function."

Charcoal relaxed a bit. "Why didn't you tell Wodensfang? He was working under him."

"I didn't dare because it was caused by dragon poachers. He was captured when flying over Norway." Furious told the tale. There was guilt in his voice. "I saved him when he was being transported to Greater Archipelago. He was already like that when I found him."

The young dragon fell silent. The greater alpha dragon took a deep breath. "I don't want to see another mass immigration of fanatics to the surface." Furious confessed. "We had that when my brother died. They destroyed everything we built so hard; I... couldn't bear it and left to Hidden World."

Charcoal understood what Furious meant. There were fanatical dragons out there; most talked about dragon supremacy over the surface world. They usually reside within Hidden World. While he never really met one before, Toothless had described it to him.

However, something felt off. "How does this relate to my inherited mutation?"

"Haddock Night Fury is unlike any other Night Furies that exists." Furious explained. He looked pained as he explained it. "For everything that exists, for every mutation, the more extreme they are, the higher chance something to go wrong. Haddock Night Fury evolved to never have any negative effect from their mutation."

The greater alpha dragon took a deep breath. "... you would never survive the merging if you weren't a Haddock. What Wodensfang's Alatreon did would have killed you if you weren't a Haddock." Furious explained. "Every mutation can never go wrong. That's why Northern Alliance is looking for you."

Hiccup thought that explained why his mutations never had any side effect. Everything, including mana perversion, involve mutation in some way. It made sense why they sought for Haddock Night Fury, specifically. They most likely knew about his family.

They knew Haddock Night Fury would never become addicted to mana perversion.

This meant deviant factions like Northern Alliance would hunt them forever. They would search for them until the end of the world. Hidden World would simply be relatively safe for them. They were destined to be searched until the end of the world.

Haddock Night Furies were destined for that kind of life.

Furious did not need to read his mind to know what he was thinking. "Your human father doesn't know. Wodensfang kept them secret for our safety." The greater alpha dragon informed. "I knew because my brother was one."

Charcoal looked away as he thought of the situation. "... I don't want any of this." He confessed. "I don't want to be destined into this life."

They fell silent once more. Charcoal had to make peace with the fact that his hatchlings might live a similar life with him. He did not know what to think. He would have to tell them when they were ready. They must be raised with this fact in mind.

"I know." Furious straightened himself. "That's why I sealed your Ebonclaw ability."

The young dragon looked back at him. He was shocked. "What?"

"You are my son. You have my mutations." The greater alpha dragon answered. His voice was soft. "I sealed them because I know you're not ready."

Charcoal had no idea Furious could do something like that. However, he knew what he meant. "You came here to unseal my mutation."

Furious did not answer, but that silence was the answer. The young dragon took a step back. "I want to think about this."

"No. My time is running out." The greater alpha dragon whispered. He advanced a step forward, staring at the young dragon. "Wodensfang is replacing me. I don't know who will replace me, but I don't trust them to deal with this problem."

"I don't trust you to deal with my problem either." Charcoal retorted. He glanced around to find opportunity to flee. "I choose no one to help me deal with this. You and my human father have lied to my face about my life. You never let me make a decision on my own!"

"Because you don't know the cruel reality of this world." Furious retaliated. "I spent over over 100 years following my ideals with my brother. I want you to learn that things aren't as simple as you think!"

"No! You hid everything from me for your own selfish reason. My human father was no different!" The young dragon took another step back. "He could've awakened my dragon side when I was 5. I could've met you earlier, and all this would've never happened!"

"Then you're blaming him." The greater alpha dragon took a step forward.

"And I blamed you for your..." Charcoal searched for his words. "... insane response! You merged your son with me!"

Furious was angry to hear that. "I merged Mimir with you because you were too weak to live in the wild!" He raised his voice. The old dragon took a deep breath, before continued speaking. "I can't bear seeing my son like that anymore. If not for me, you'll be dead in the Viking village!"

"And then you lied about everything!" The young dragon snarled. "You could've told me the truth!"

"You will get yourself killed if you know the truth!" The old dragon retaliated. "Did you see yourself when you were young? You think everything could be solved by being kind. There's no place for honour in a place where war never ends. You're too soft to accept that!"

"There's nothing wrong with being too soft." Charcoal retorted. "It just means I care. Even you! You merged your son with me instead of putting him out of his misery!"

Furious took a deep breath. There was great anger in his eyes. "... you're right." He decided. "I'm too soft on you."

Suddenly, black tendrils appeared from the ground. They wrapped itself around Charcoal, immobilising him. Furious moved to stand right in front of him. Angry yellow eyes stared at the terrified forest green ones. "That's why I care."

Charcoal saw more black tendrils appearing from the ground. It shot and stabbed itself into him. While there was no blood, the young dragon felt the pain. The tendrils were forcing something within. They were trying to unplug something.

Then, it did.

The young dragon gasped when something within slammed onto his mana circuits. It felt like a giant bursting dam flooding the village underneath. Things he did not know were suddenly opening up to him. It felt incredibly painful.

However, Furious was not done yet. His body was enveloped in black flame, before turning intangible in shape. He enveloped the immobilised Charcoal at that state. The young dragon felt him breaching his mind, as well as doing something impossible.

Somehow, Furious was seeping through his mana circuit!

Charcoal could feel him inside his mana pool. He felt his body ticking rapidly; it was a familiar feeling of mutation. 'Furious, what are you doing?!'

'Showing you how much I care.' Furious responded in his mind.

Through his mana pool, the incorporeal Ebonclaw Night Fury moved into his mind. Charcoal could feel him pushing through every protection there was; nothing stopped him because the intruder came from the inside.

Furious was forcing himself into his mind and mana pool, pushing everything away, including his running thoughts. However, Charcoal's mind was not big enough to contain something like that. The rest of the Ebonclaw dragon pushed itself into his mana pool.

Eventually, the black flame had completely vanished into Charcoal. The tendrils had all but disappeared. The young dragon collapsed, immobile from what happened. It was extremely hard to think; Furious had grasped his mind.

'I could make you and your mate forget about all this.' Furious thought in his mind. He had found the mental connection between Charcoal, Toothless and Gryphon. 'I could make this all go away and pretend this never happened.'

There was no response. Charcoal could not think, but he would remember. Furious thought some more. 'But I won't. Because I care.'

The incorporeal Ebonclaw Night Fury was doing something. Furious was stretching his mind; replacing the gaps with something. Charcoal's mana circuits were multiplying; his mana pool were getting stretched out. Furious was forcing space from within.

Eventually, Charcoal's thoughts were running again. It took him a while to process everything. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BODY!?' He mentally roared, fearful of what was happening. 'GET OUT!'

There was no response. Charcoal thought of a solution. It felt like some sort of possession, but Furious was not controlling him. His body and mana circuits were unresponsive; he did not know any spells that could get rid of him!

Eventually, Furious finished his handiwork. However, he was not done yet. Charcoal suddenly felt extreme pain from every inch of his body, including his mind. He did not know how long it was. When he did regain control of his body, all he could do was roar.

"KRAAAAAAAA!"

"KRAAAAAAAA!"

"Kraaa!" Amber, Toothless and the hatchlings woke up in a freight.

"What the-"

"Charcoal, what-"

"Kraeee!" The adult male Night Fury rushed into the open cave at the cove. They heard something crashed inside, before falling silent.

Concerned, Toothless moved to enter the cave. She moved around the tables and shelves he crashed through, before finally reaching her mate.

Charcoal was curled up at the corner. He was whining and shaking in fear.

"Charcoal." Toothless softly spoke. "Are you okay?"

There was no response. The mother dragon moved to wrap her wings around him, trying to comfort her mate. She carefully piled herself on top to provide some protection. After that, Toothless took a deep breath, before letting out a deep, loud purr. "Hrrrr..."

Toothless kept purring while on top of him. It took some time, but Charcoal eventually started to calm down. He was no longer panicking or shaking in fear. When the adult young dragon was calm enough, he carefully pushed his mate away. Toothless jumped off at the sign of mental recovery.

Charcoal straightened himself. "... thank you." He uttered. "And sorry."

"Don't apologise. We get nightmares, sometimes." The mother dragon assured. She was still concerned. "What were you dreaming?"

"It doesn't feel like a dream." The adult young dragon answered. He shuddered as he remembered. "Furious was inside my mind. He somehow got through my mana circuit."

Toothless darkened her expression. "Come." She urged. "Let's get you checked out."

The two Night Furies eventually left the open cave. Their hatchlings and Amber were waiting outside. There were confusion in their expression. The Light Fury decided to ask. "What happened?"

"Furious happened." The mother dragon answered. "Can you do a thorough check?"

Amber straightened herself. "Of course."

After getting Charcoal comfortable near the pond, the Light Fury worked on analysing his mind. She ejected a Nature Shard onto the ground, cast some spells, before remaining still. Toothless stayed a bit further with her hatchlings. She kept on guard in case something went wrong.

The last thing they need was Charcoal getting out of control.

An hour later, the hatchlings fell back asleep. Few hours later, the Light Fury was done. Amber had spent a whole Nature Shard while tending his mind. Charcoal remained still near the pond, while the mentally exhausted Light Fury returned to the black-scaled dragoness.

Toothless saw her approach. "How was it?"

"Bad. Furious was in every inch of his body and mind." Amber expressed her concern. "His mana signature was everywhere, including his mana pool and circuit. I think he left when Charcoal woke up."

That was concerning. "Was it possession?"

"Not in our definition of possession. Furious had literally been inside of him." The Light Fury answered. There was a hint of fear in her voice. "It shouldn't be possible, but that's what I saw."

Toothless did not know what to say. They had never seen anything like it.

"I saw your bond with him while cleaning his mind."

That was incredibly concerning.

Amber continued speaking. "He could've entered your mind through him." She explained. "Last use was about 12 hours ago. His bond with Gryphon hasn't been used since yesterday."

"That's not good." Toothless muttered. She did not like where this was going. Her bond with Charcoal was usually unprotected, meaning he could be the backdoor into her mind, and vice versa. There were secrets in her mind that she wanted to keep as secrets. "What did Furious do?"

"Well, Charcoal's mind is ten times bigger now. There's a lot of new knowledge in his mind." The Light Fury answered. "His mana pool is much bigger too. His mana circuits are a lot numerous, but there's only one set of mana circuits now."

The black-scaled dragoness widened her eyes. "He came to finish what he started."

"I think so." Amber hesitantly nodded. "I'm not an expert in mana-biology. You need mana expert for that. If I didn't know better, I think Furious is empowering him."

Toothless glanced at Charcoal, who had gone to eat fishes from a pile near the pond. She looked back at her best friend. "You really think so?"

"Yeah." The Light Fury nodded. "Furious must be planning something."

The mother dragon were concerned of this development. She had some ideas in mind, but without proof, she could not do anything. Toothless had to know what Furious was planning to put measures in place.

Regardless, whatever that plan was, it must be dangerous.

"Hrrk!"

Suddenly, they heard Charcoal choking on something. Toothless and Amber rushed to help. "Charcoal, are you okay?"

The adult male dragon paused, before sneezing something out of his maw. "Hrrk-choo!"

Splat!

What came out was some sort of black parasitic tendril thing. It looked like a leech. The thing opened its round jagged mouth and let out a screech. "Kreee!"

The dragons jumped away from it. "What is that?!"

The leech parasite tried to run, but Toothless was faster. She fired a small plasma blast, which hit the thing and incinerated it. Everyone bated their breath as they waited for it to burn. Thankfully, there was nothing left but smoke and ash.

The dragons felt relief. "That's enough incident for the day." Toothless decided, before turning her focus to Charcoal. "I need to talk to Merciless."

"Can we do this later?" Charcoal pleaded. He was still exhausted. "I need my sleep."

"Charcoal-"

Amber stopped her. "Toothless, his mind is still recovering. Sleeping helps with recovery." She interrupted, before focusing back to Charcoal. "I'll need to cast dreamless rest on you before you sleep."

Toothless eventually relented. She would have to think over how to talk with Merciless. With that in mind, the dragoness moved to where their hatchlings slept, before resting herself around them. She wrapped them under her wings, before falling asleep.

The next day, early in the morning, Toothless woke up to feel her mate sleeping on top of her. Charcoal had her wrapped around his wings, protecting her from outside element. The ground was still charred, meaning he most likely renewed the fire bed before going to sleep.

The mother dragon pushed him away. Charcoal stirred and woke up from his sleep. "Good morning."

"Morning." Toothless muttered. She stood from the ground, before blinked at some changes. Her mind was clearer than ever. It took her some time to realise what happened to him also affected her. "I need to talk to Merciless."

"Okay." Charcoal slowly stood from the ground. He was careful not to disturb their still-sleeping hatchlings. The father dragon paused as he focused on his mind. "... Gryphon is on her way to Merciless."

There was a pause. Toothless glanced to the side; Amber was still sleeping not far from them. The mother dragon sat on her hindlegs. "Do you want to talk about last night?"

"Furious came to visit. He used the fake memory to transport himself into my mind." The father dragon confessed. "He told me about Haddock Night Fury. Did you know about their inherited ability?"

Toothless tilted her head. "No." She answered. "Most Night Fury abilities are kept secret."

"He told me that Haddocks inherit ability related to mutations." Charcoal quietly responded. He looked uncomfortable. "No matter what mutation, I would never get negative effect."

The mother dragon widened her eyes.

That explained everything.

It explained why Charcoal could have two sets of mana circuits. It explained why they never had any negative mutation. It explained why every major mutation they had so far never had any negative consequence.

It also explained why Northern Alliance was hunting them. Mana perversion was a form of forced mutation. In this case, no matter how many humans were melted, Haddock Night Fury would never become addicted. They would never deteriorate when not melting humans for a long time.

They were trying to create the perfect deviant dragon.

"I need to talk to Merciless." Toothless finally repeated. "Have Gryphon found him yet?"

"... she did." Charcoal answered, focusing at the cove wall. He was concentrating. "I'll try to proxy your presence through my mind. Gryphon is doing the same with Merciless. This might consume more mana than usual."

"That's fine." The mother dragon nodded, before focusing on her bond with him.

Charcoal guided Toothless' presence through his mind. He carefully connected her with Gryphon's mind. They paused as they waited for the telepathic call to stabilise. Toothless began hearing the voice from the other side.

"... hello?" Toothless heard Merciless' mental voice. "Gryphon, did you do the spell right? I don't hear anything."

"Merciless." The mother dragon sent her mental voice. "It's me."

There was a long pause. "... Kiri- I mean, Toothless!" Merciless eventually responded. He was hesitant. "I... didn't expect to hear your voice."

"We need your help getting out of Barbaric Archipelago." Toothless replied.

"I... you're asking a lot when we just start talking again." Merciless was nervous. "How have you been? Of course you're fine. Listen, I need to talk to your mate."

"No." The mother dragon responded. "You won't be dealing with Charcoal. You'll be dealing with me."

There was another silence. Eventually, the Greater Archipelago greater alpha relented. "Fine." He grumbled. "Look, I can't smuggle your family out. I'd be going against our father's law of not interfering with other greater alpha's internal politics. I'd strongly recommend waiting this out."

"Waiting this out?" Toothless was incredulous. "Merciless, we are being targetted. Northern Alliance is looking for us! Furious isn't really doing anything to help. If anything, he's making it worse!"

"I know, but father just pushed for Furious' dismissal and impeachment." Merciless assured. "It'll be... 29 days until he's gone."

"That's way too long!"

"What do you fucking expect me to do?" The greater alpha was frustrated. "Sis, you're asking me to do something extremely risky. There's little to gain from this risk."

"Fine. You want to know why Northern Alliance was looking for us? It's because of Haddock Night Fury." Toothless finally revealed. "Haddocks don't get negative effects from mutations. All mutations. What do you think would happen if Northern Alliance got their hands on Charcoal, or worse, our hatchlings?"

There was another pause. Eventually, Merciless responded. "What do you want me to do?"

"Furious is keeping us in. He specifically wants us to stay." Toothless explained the situation. "A deviant incident exposed us to Hairy Hooligan Vikings. They're willing to help, but they wanted to defeat Furious."

"Good luck with that." Merciless commented.

"Charcoal and I plan to defeat Furious just enough for us to escape through the border." The mother dragon explained the plan. "Charcoal made a draconic cannon, but we don't think that's enough. But we found something that can fight him."

"What is it?"

"Sheldon biological mana construct. Charcoal and I found them just yesterday." Toothless elaborated. "We almost have everything we need. I need you to find Astral Grain and bring them to us."

"I don't know what the hell those things are. I don't think there's anything like that in my region." Merciless pondered her request. "Do you have any lead on where to find them?"

"I don't know. Dad most likely have one." The mother dragon answered. "Explain everything to him, including the biological mana construct. Even if he doesn't have it, at least he'll help."

"Alright. I'll talk to him." The greater alpha dragon agreed. "I'll send over some Relocation Crystals in case the anti-displacement ward went down. This would be separate from whatever-grain you're looking for."

"Anti what?"

"Anti-displacement ward. It's a barrier that goes all around Barbaric Archipelago." Merciless explained. "It stops all sorts of teleportation crystals. You wouldn't know it was there until you tried."

That explained Furious' lack of response on Toothless' Relocation Crystal. He already had something in place. "I'll see if there's a way to bring it down."

"Good luck. I'll see what I can do from my side." The greater alpha dragon responded. "Do you need anything else?"

"That's all." Toothless answered. "I want you to be discreet about this. Trust no one. There might be a deviant amongst your ranks. Send the message to dad yourself. Make sure he's the only one that hears it."

"That's doable." Merciless agreed. "Alright. I'll bounce off to do those stuff. Good luck, Toothless."

"Thanks." The mother dragon answered, before disconnected her mind from the call.

Back in reality, Charcoal was accompanying their hatchlings. They were a lot calmer than usual. The father dragon felt the telepathic call disconnect. He stared at the concerned acidic green eyes. "How was it?"

"Merciless agreed to help." Toothless answered. "There's an anti-displacement ward covering the archipelago. Even if we have Relocation Crystals, we can't use them."

The father dragon did not know much about wards. They were mostly area-denial barriers to stop certain crystals from working. "Do you know how to take them down?"

"I don't know. It's most likely a crystal cluster emplacement somewhere in Dragon Island." The mother dragon was deep in thought. "Now that we know there's a ward around Barbaric Archipelago, our first goal is to destroy them."

"We only have one Relocation Crystal."

"Merciless is sending more from Greater Archipelago." Toothless assured. "The moment we destroyed the ward, we can immediately escape."

Charcoal was happy with that. However, something concerned him. "What about the Vikings?"

"What about them?"

"They're going to fight against Furious as well." The father dragon reminded. "How are they going to run? They can't use crystals, let alone mana."

"I'm sure the draconic cannon is enough deterrent against Furious." Toothless shrugged her wings. "At least for the next four weeks. They're probably much safer after Furious was ousted."

Charcoal did not respond. He simply stared with concern. The father dragon was not sure if they could leave the Vikings, especially his father. He could not guarantee their safety.

The mother dragon looked up to the sky. "I think it's time for breakfast." She decided, before looking back at him. "I'll hunt for the day. Can you hold the hatchlings?"

"... sure."