The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 35

With both Jasmine and Elijah supporting my powerless body, we had managed to make our way back to the surface of the cavern where we fought the elderwood guardian. The once serene field of grass was in ruins as toppled trees and fallen stalactites lay scattered and splintered amongst fissured grounds.

"Do you think anyone else survived?" I asked, carefully scanning the mess around us.

"Well, Reginald and Brald were both frozen together with the mana beast from the last attack you used. I wasn’t close enough to save Samantha either, after she got knocked off of you and landed near the elderwood guardian. I conjured a metal shelter to keep her safe from the debris but I’m not sure if she was able to survive," Elijah reported.

Between the after effects from using the second phase and worrying about Jasmine, I was a bit ashamed to say that I hadn’t really thought about the rest of the party. I guess when I didn’t see anyone else in the shelter with us, I immediately assumed they didn’t make it.

"I don’t think we’ll be able to help Samantha in time, even if she is alive by the time we find her under all of this mess," I sighed. "We still need to find the elderwood guardian’s beast core."

"I think I’ll be able to help with the first problem." Elijah knelt down, placing a palm on the ground. "Give me a few minutes."

"Scan," the bespectacled boy muttered as a thin wave of mana spread out of his hand.

[Earth’s Pulse]

The spell that Elijah had just invoked, as far as I knew, was usually made to scan the ground for signs of approaching enemies. Usually, the caster would be able to hear footsteps and, if he was that skilled, perhaps distinguish the number of footsteps. However, to encompass not only the surface of the floor, but the ground beneath it, I couldn’t help but become more and more intrigued by this boy.

After a few, tense minutes, Elijah’s furrowed brows lifted into an expression of surprise. "I know where Samantha is and her heart’s still beating!"

A sleek, metallic tent rose from the ground at Elijah’s invocation and opened up in front of us to reveal Samantha.

By the state the conjurer was in, she was just barely hanging in there. Both her legs had been broken clean in multiple locations from where the elderwood’s tendrils had grasped her. Splinters of white jutted out from the bloody mess that were her legs as a milky, yellow pus indicated that her wounds had already become infected.

The good news, if we could even call it that, was that only her legs had incurred serious damage. The rest of her body had cuts and bruises but was otherwise unharmed.

Elijah’s face contorted in horror at the sight as he immediately turned around and lurched forward to vomit.

Jasmine rushed towards her and knelt, not knowing what she had to do to help her.

Limping toward Samantha, I checked her neck for her pulse and placed a hand on her forehead. "Well, she doesn’t have a fever yet and her pulse is steady enough where I don’t think her life will be in danger anytime soon. The silver lining is that she’s unconscious."

"Some silver lining," Elijah coughed as he convulsed into another dry heave.

As Jasmine carefully cradled the unconscious Samantha in her arms, I thought back to when the peppy conjurer had made attempts at striking up a conversation with her. With the two of them being the only girls, Samantha was relentless in her pursuit at befriending the brusque Jasmine. Eventually, Jasmine had started to respond, even smiling at times.

I thought about our next course of action. If we wanted to get Samantha to safety, I would need to give up on looking for the beast core for now. However, with Samantha in her state and my body being barely capable of standing on its own, the best thing to do was for Elijah and Jasmine to take Samantha to a medic before coming back down for me.

"Elijah," I called out to my friend, who was now gasping for air.

Just as I was about to give my instructions, a thundering roar rumbled throughout the cavern, shaking a few stalactites loose from the ceiling.

"What now?!" Elijah groaned, more in resignation than in fear.

’Papa! I’m here!’ Sylv cried out in my mind.

"It’s okay, Elijah," I coaxed, as Jasmine lowered the dagger she had already unsheathed.

Despite the childlike voice that rang in my head, the dragon that stood before me was far from anything akin to a child.

I let out a whistle. "Wow, Sylv. You gained weight... and height, and width."

Sylvie, the small cat-like dragon that had always sat on top of my head was now almost the spitting image of the dragon I named her after.

Her body wasn’t as large as Sylvia’s, but it was still over eight meters long. I could now say with full confidence that Sylvie was indeed a dragon. Her scales had an obsidian-black sheen, reflecting the light from the dungeon in an almost divine way. The two horns that sprouted out of her head were sharper and even more menacing than the titan’s horns I had seen years ago. With wings similar to Sylvia’s—except with pitch-black feathers—and blood-red spikes that protruded along the ridge of her spine, she exuded a menacing, if not baleful, aura around her. The once adorable face and muzzle of hers was now elegant and sharp, her black sclera and yellow irises reminding me of a particularly bright topaz shining in the dead of night.

Sylv’s powerful limbs—armored with jagged spikes at the elbows and knees—lifted as she approached me with a graceful poise, despite her large size. She lowered her head that was as large as my torso, bringing her snout close to mine.

Suddenly, her snake-like tongue shot out as she licked my face with the force to lift me from the ground.

"My God, your breath is foul, Sylv," I sputtered, barely able to keep myself upright.

’Hehe!’ Sylv’s childish giggle rang in my head.

"I-Is that a wyvern? But it has four limbs. I-It can’t be, right? Is that a d-d-d—"

"I’m pretty sure she’s a dragon," I finished for the dumbfounded Elijah.

He stared up at the sight of the fearsome beast, his face filled with more horror than when he had seen the elderwood guardian.

Jasmine, who had already known about my bond, was still trembling at the sight of my juvenile dragon as she clutched Samantha close to her chest.

"Elijah, this is my bond, Sylvie." I stretched my hand out to rub my dragon’s snout, causing her hind leg to thump the ground in pleasure.

I couldn’t help but chortle at how little Sylvie had changed on the inside despite her dramatic transformation.

Turning to face Elijah, I put on a grim face. "Jasmine already knew about this, but I want you to promise to keep this a secret as well. Dragons have been thought to have been extinct for centuries now, so if anyone were to suddenly see Sylvie... well, you know what greed can do to someone." _{freeωebnovēl.c૦m}

Elijah nodded frantically in response, his glasses hanging loose on his crooked nose.

"We need to hurry, though. It worked out well that Sylvie came when she did. Let’s move Samantha on Sylvie’s back." I was barely able to stand up on my own now, but walking more than a few steps was out of the question.

I watched as Elijah and Jasmine carefully loaded the unconscious conjurer onto Sylv’s back before they helped me up as well.

It was decided that only Samantha and I would ride Sylv to the first cavern of the dungeon while Jasmine and Elijah would follow close behind.

The journey back up only took a few hours compared to the full day we needed when we had travelled down.

’Sylv, can you still transform?’ I asked as we ascended up toward the entrance of the dungeon. My mind was spinning, trying to come up with a way to protect her from greedy nobles in case she couldn’t, but thankfully, she said that she could still change into a miniature form.

’What did you do during this time, anyway? How did you grow so quickly?’ I sent Sylv while lying down against her long neck.

’I hunted a lot of monsters and ate their mana cores! I missed you a lot. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you while you were here.’ Another gust of wind formed beneath us as she flapped her wings down, accelerating towards our destination.

It seemed like her body wasn’t able to grow without consuming mana cores, which reminded me of the beast core the elderwood guardian had dropped. At this point, I could only hope that it would stay hidden from adventurers until I went back down.

When we arrived at the first cavern—where the batrunners had been—I preparing myself to fight a couple of them in this crippled state. However, to my surprise, as soon as the batrunners saw Sylvie, they became so terrified, they simply buried their heads in the ground off in the opposite corner of the cave.

Jasmine and Elijah arrived a little less than an hour later, both heaving for breath. Sylv’s body illuminated as she shrank back down into the size of a kitten at my mention, but I noticed the change in her appearance even in this form. Her red spikes had disappeared and she was pitch black—apart from her sharp yellow irises. All-in-all, she resembled a demonic, but harmless, black cat.

Sputtering out a series of pained coughs, Samantha stirred awake. As soon as she had become conscious enough to feel the pain in her legs, her eyes widened as she gasped from the agony. She had her arms wrapped around herself as she trembled.

"Y-You guys all made it," she croaked, her body trembling, and her face contorted from the pain. Her face was pale and I could tell she was beginning to burn up by the cold sweat that rolled down her forehead. Her lips were white and cracked as deep bags weighed down beneath her once bright eyes.

"Stop talking," I ordered. "You need to save your energy. Don’t worry, we’ll get you help soon."