Blue Signal

The run to the cave continued without much issue, until a new sort of… distraction appeared.

“Blue haze! To the left! What should we do?”

“We have an obligation Shari, I feel it would be wrong to not follow it.”

“Yes!”

What’s… blue haze?

Turning to his left, Mr. Dragon looked upon the blue haze, unsure of what to make of it. It was very clearly unnatural, for a few reasons, for one thing it was, perhaps obviously, blue. Now this in itself was not entirely strange, as various substances can create blue colored hazes under the right circumstances, and various magics make it even easier, but this shade of blue was one not standard to anything, with shades bright and popping, and other shades dull and seemingly blending into the air itself. The other oddity was how it was moving not in the way smoke usually moves, and was seemingly stopping and starting on random intervals, with bits and pieces rushing to rejoin the main body of smoke, as it would occasionally break apart into various geometric shapes, of various shapes and sizes. Finally, within the smoke, various figures could be seen, though no one could see what they were doing quite yet, as Mr. Dragon began to edge closer and closer.

“You see it, Shari?”

“I do! What should we do honor-”

“Not the time, make these jokes later understand?”

“Ok…”

She seems really obsessed with that joke in particular. I wonder what’s so funny about that nickname.

As Mr. Dragon contemplated the reason behind the joke, Shari glumly thought to herself.

Honorable elder sister… I hope the day comes when you do not see this title as a joke.

“Hmmm, I think I see some sort of fighting inside of it? What about you?”

“... I have worse eyesight than yours… but I could certainly see how that could be fighting.”

“Mr. Dragon, would you mind staying here and watching the little one? Both Shari and I must investigate this.”

Sure.

“Thank you!”

Shari unfroze the ice behind her, and began to make her way down Mr. Dragon, while Mairi merely jumped down in a single bound, her legs seemingly unaffected by the height of her drop. Shari helped the little one down and positioned her behind Mr. Dragon. As this was happening, Mairi made a request to Mr. Dragon.

“Keep an eye out, alright? We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

The little one smiled, and nodded a half dozen times happily, perhaps interested in spending more time with Mr. Dragon.

“Ok!”

Mairi and Shari then both began to approach the mass of blue fog, their expressions grave, but not especially worried.

It doesn’t seem to be connected to a larger body, and it’s too stable to be capable of producing more signals… but just to be safe…

“Shari…”

“On it!”

Shari’s staff began to glow crimson, as the mana in the air around her began to conjeel and form into something new… at first a mere flame, but soon a twisting mass of endless orange folds, all giving off an incredible heat. The light from the staff was also incredible, being enough to even distract the apparent figures within the blue haze, whom stopped their combat for a few moments, and looked at the source of that burning light and scorching heat. Which offset the seemingly calm night originally surrounding them. The left figure stood still and stared at the spell, while the right seemingly recoiled backward in an oddly pained manner, as though it was already feeling a coming agony whose source had yet to even reach it.

“Now!”

At Mairi’s command, the folds on Shari’s spell began to extend forward, making a sort of blanket of orange light, going ever towards the blue haze. It lit up the entire area as it passed, revealing a sort of boggy place surrounding the field they were standing in on two sides, this was perhaps for the best, as it meant there was little chance of a fire spreading once more like in the forest. All of that being said, the flame spell ‘guardian’s blade’ was now active.

In response to this, both figures dived to the ground, as the spell bisected the haze horizontally at an almost unseeable pace, prompting the left figure to feel various variations of shock and awe.

Is that flying fire?! Is that a fixture of this place? First my body becomes healthy and strong, then this creature goes against all my knowledge of nature… Now something like that?

The left figure thought as she dove, the guardian's blade passing right over her head. Unfortunately, she had no chance to catch her breath, as the one to her right extended a hand towards her, not to help, but to blast forward a tentacle, which flew towards her at top speed. The right figure also seemed to be recoiling from the flames, but unlike the left figure, its skin was visibly bubbling, so perhaps it was not quite so sturdy in the face of heat… no… that was not the case, it appeared as such at first, but it recoiled at the moment the spell was cast, before the heat could reach it, so its reaction must have been because of something else. This mattered little to the left figure, as the right continued its attack regardless.

Incapable of appreciating beauty? You really are a total boor!

This bizarre sentiment was perhaps at odds with her set of affairs, as she tried to force herself even further to the left to avoid the attack, but it seemed she put too much strength into this shove however, because she flew up a bit more than she expected, given her obvious shock as the event occurred, and almost flew back first into a rock.

It really is crazy what’s happened to my body, I feel light, and I’m stronger too! But I don’t feel wrong at all, this place doesn’t feel wrong either, if anything it feels right? But… but should it?

Unfortunately, the thing attacking her was not particularly bothered with either her nor its own circumstances, despite the visible pain it showcased earlier. As its tentacle, brown and shriveled, burrowed into the ground where she used to be.

AH! It’s doing that again!

She scrambled upwards, and began to run on top of the rock, and not a moment too soon, as the tentacle burst through the ground where she used to be.

In response, she threw her hand forward, and grabbed onto the tentacle, and squeezed it, immediately bursting it in two with her grip strength.

This strength is most convenient in times like this, if nothing else, I hope I can keep it forever and ever.

It was not entirely useful however, as another tentacle flew out of the creature's shoulder, right towards her.

She countered and made her way towards it in turn, dodging a tentacle to her right and another to her left, before reaching the creature and punching it in the stomach, it’s face was unviewable due to the many tentacles sprouting out of it, but the miniscule twitches indicated some amount of pain was felt.

In response, the creature's face burst into three more tentacles, one of which pierced her shoulder, while the other two were fortunately caught by her, but not crushed.

She then swerved, and still holding the tentacles, and tried to throw the creature into the flames, but the creature had caught onto this scheme, as it allowed it’s tentacles to extend at top speed just as she attempted to throw it, and due to not being able to stand up straight, she could not wind up for a truly proper throw, leading to the creature only being shoved a small distance.

Realizing the poor fortune of her surroundings, she immediately turned and jumped a few feet forward, towards Shari and Mairi.

Perhaps once I get there, I can convince them to stop? Maybe I can show them I'm not an enemy? Or maybe I can beat that thing solo… AH! Maybe this is a test?!

Optimistic in the current circumstances, she then began running towards the Shari and Mairi, and kept an eye on the creature behind her as she did so, her pace was somewhat slow however, as if she went into a full stride, she would be risking a headbut with fire.

Is he still…? ACK!

A second and third tentacle made their way towards her, they were now a sickly green for various reasons, and appeared to be even more shriveled up.

I have to keep an eye on him! If I don’t he may send another tentacle through the ground!

In exchange for slowing her pace, she began running at a forty five degree angle, snapping her head from the two in front of her to the one behind her periodically.

It’s not fun trying to avoid attacks I can’t see…

A majority of her attention towards the creature was towards its tentacles, but some amount of it was also looking at the greater body, scanning for any sort of tentacles which could presumably sprout out, go through the ground, and corner her in an unpredictable way again.

“Honor-Mairi, do you think the one coming towards us is a possible signal symptom? A normal lass trapped in an awful situation, or…”

“No way she’s a blue signal, her body isn’t making our eyes bleed, I’m personally going towards the option of her being a lass, normal might be a bit of a misnomer though, considering how strong she seems to be.”

“Ah, that’s true, I suppose it is easy to forget, but the average person of this age isn’t particularly strong… Not like our comrades.”

“It’s easy to lose perspective.”

“Quite.”

“Be that as it may… I have heard many tales of blue signals and signal symptoms acting out various scenes to gain trust, never forget the tale of the baron, and his mad heir.”

This conversation seemed to be referencing a far older tale, but my research showed the tale they were referencing was one which I had recorded only two and a half centuries ago, and had nothing to do with a young baron, but instead an older, less affluent, man of some renown1.

“It is fortunate then, that we can be certain of the other’s un-mortal nature.”

“Yes, though it probably isn’t a blue signal either, it isn’t making my eyes bleed.”

“Is that truly an always present factor?”

“I suppose it shouldn’t be… given blue sigal’s inherent lack of consistency, but maybe the consistency is something on us mortals' end rather than there’s? Perhaps our bodies somehow recognise their wrongness and react accordingly, rather than their bodies doing that to us on purpose.”

“Ah! Brilliant, honorable eld-”

“Not. The. Time.”

“Yes mam…”

Back to the battle… the running figure had continued to dodge tentacles as she ran towards Mairi and Shari. Each time she dodged one, another sprouted from the creature, to the point where it no longer resemble any mortal in shape.

Almost there!

It was in some sense strange that it had not sent any towards her from underground again, but I am not the abomination, so perhaps there is a train of logic I cannot hope to understand. After all, it did not think, it did not feel, it did not understand. All it could do, in its truly awful way, was continue breaking, continue corrupting, continue a lie to life and death.

She’s appearing rather familiar… why is…

Now close enough for Shari’s eyes to pick up on the more intricate details of the one approaching them, Shari felt a wave of strange unease, as she began eyeing the specific features of the girl rapidly approaching them.

“I believe I have seen this girl… or her like, before.”

“Huh? In that case, I think you can concentrate on the back figure now, I’ll keep an eye on the girl.”

After a short nod, Shari raised her staff once more, and began to chant various sweet nothings to the mana surrounding her. This led to the rather large blanket of flame above the creature and the girl to start wriggling, as though it’s inside were filled with various animals of various sizes. This culminated in it suddenly straightening once more, and finally, the back edges of the blanket began to fall towards the ground, until the creature had no way to run away, except towards Mairi, Shari, and the girl. Said girl had unfortunately tripped due to surprise from the blankets sudden movement, and was now finding her face surrounded with dirt.

“MMMMfffff!”

I am certain she may have meant to say something witty and of value, but unfortunately her mouth was too filled with dirt for any sort of parlay, and I was not interested enough to bother checking.

“Are you alright?”

Mairi now chose to carefully question the girl, unsure of her intentions, and mistakenly assuming the dive to the ground was in some way planned.

“I'm ok! Man, your friend sure is incredible, how are you feeling about that?”

“Uhh, I’m fine as well? Are you… mortal?”

“I wish that had changed to…”

“Of course, what I mean is are you… like that… thing?”

“Nope! Can’t make tentacles! Sorry!”

“No no, that’s a good thing.”

“Why?”

“I think that should be obvious on first sight.”

Both were rather different in their views, one was cheerful and energetic, with none of the elegance of Shari nor any of the innocence of the little one. And the other was rather cautious, keeping an eye on the creature in the background still. This seemed to lead to unfortunate awkwardness.

“The signal symptom is soon to be dealt with!”

This awkwardness was thankfully cut down by Shari, who’s flames were now entirely surrounding the creature.

“Oh, that’s a good thing, excuse me, milady…?”

“Don't call me that. My name is Miyo!”

Miyo snapped a bit before catching herself.

“Oh, well it’s a pleasure to meet you lady Miyo! I am sorry we can’t meet under better circumstances.”

“Oh, why that’s quite-”

This bizarre cacophony of oh’s was cut off by a sudden, unexpected tentacle, coming from the flames, it was certainly worse for wear and would ot last much longer, but with it’s speed it was still a formidable danger.

“Ah! Is there anything you can-?”

“On it!”

The guardians blade began to double it’s efforts, while it was incapable of changing from it’s original size, it could still stretch to a certain extent, and made an effort to fold on top of the creature.

“More on the way!”

“I can handle those!”

Pulling out her bow, Mairi began shooting down the tentacles, which were now fragile from the flames. More tentacles made their way towards the three, much to Mairi’s dismay, a change in strategy was required.

“Get back Miyo! We’ll fold the rest of the blade in top of them.”

“No need!”

Before Mairi could clarify what Miyo had meant by this innocuous statement, Miyo jumped forward, and began using her hands to grab and crush the tentacles quickly.

“Their slower thanks to the flames, we should be fine! Plus the thing over there hasn’t placed any of it’s tentacles in the ground yet!”

The transparent nature of flames meant she could still see the figure behind them, and more importantly the fact that it had still not attempted to place its tentacles underground.

That's great! As long as it doesn’t do that, this should be easy!

To continue a long story in a short timespan, while the two of them continued to strike down the tentacles, Shari continued folding the flames on top of the creature, such that it was soon totally covered with the stuff.

“It should be dead soon!”

“...Something about this feels off.”

“What do you mean Mairi Mecalty?”

So if it isn’t that ridiculous title, it has to be my full name? What's with her? Well I won’t complain, but it’s sure is strange.

“I mean… this is too easy isn’t it? Maybe we should retreat for now? Towards Mr. Dragon?”

Before Shari could respond, Miyo felt the need to interject.

“Why should we do that? We got him on the ropes! He isn’t even that strong, he’s only dangerous because he fights dirty.”

“I must agree, that monster deserves none of the fear you are feeling towards it.”

“I-I suppose that's true.”

Was my suggestion so cowardly?

Her distraction was almost her downfall unfortunately, as a tentacle suddenly burst through the ground, and almost went right through her head, if not for it being slightly inaccurate.

“How did it-”

“No time! Get rid of those folds flame user! I’ll handle him personally since he’s even weaker now!”

“On it!”

Miyo ran forward, clearly hopeful and expecting little in the way of difficulty. This hope was unfortunately not proven true, as more tentacles began sprouting from the ground than ever before, and due to not going through the flames, were now far sturdier.

“There faster than ever before?! Were you hiding your true strength this entire time to toy with me you sicko?!”

I actually do not agree with this assessment, they were certainly faster than the tentacles it fired normally, but the speed was about on par with that of the tentacles it shot from underground earlier, Miyo was simply not aware of this due to the initial surprise and small size of samples. This of course begs the question of what was actually causing the increase in speed, but for that, since the blue signal which spawned this symptom is currently hidden, and not my priority, I cannot make any sort of assessment. My first guess is only rudimentary, but based on the almost god-like rejection of normalcy of that hideous enemy, it is all I can provide. You see, this creature was clearly using tentacles, which appear like those of a squid specifically, and since squids are a species which flourish underwater, this signal symptom may have gained some sort of characteristic which, when conceptually under things, allowed it to act at a higher speed, using this higher speed, perhaps it could than get it’s tentacles as far down as possible, get them to then fire up towards the surface, and have them burst out of the ground with this higher initial speed maintained through momentum.I must apologize for this guess’ blatant unreliability, but it is all I can provide.

“AH!”

Unfortunately, it appeared as though a few moments were the best Miyo could provide as well. As she was already on the ground as I considered the above theory.

“Shari-”

“I can’t! The tentacles are blocking my concentration too much for water spells!”

“Perhaps the earthen mana is usable? It may be angered by the filth’s use of tentacles in its domain?”

“It is too jumbled! I cannot converse with it properly!”

It should be noted that, this horrible situation of not being able to use their magic towards the ground was an unfortunate artifact of Shari and Mairi’s incorrect understanding of mana2.

This meant they could do nothing as more tentacles continued to attack them.

“The flame of the Guardians Blade is not working! Could it be in some way fireproof?”

“Not possible! The tentacles that came through it were much too weakened!”

“Then how is it still alive?!”

“I… I cannot say! Perhaps it has a resistance to heat?”

Strangely enough, it did not seem as though the heat was particularly hurting the creature, yet the flames hurt it nonetheless.

“Can you do something with the guardian's blade?! Try to push it through the ground?!”

“I would not do such a thing! To disgrace such traditions is an insult to mana and the great dragon god itself!”

“Oh… sorry.”

Hold on, so forcing water mana into the ground is alright but forcing fire mana into the ground is not? I really need to learn more about mana, it’s going to lead to violent fights with Shari if I am not careful… and survive this

If not for the situation, the traditions of the Floating Isles may well have led to Shari punching Mairi, regardless of the friendship between the two.

Honestly, if it weren’t for her circumstances, I would think honorable elder sister was a moron!

This momentary distraction did not help matters, as it led to the tentacles overtaking the two even further.

GAH! What can we do?!

Mairi gritted her teeth, unsure of what to do next. As she did so, her childhood in the forest with her family flashed before her eyes, an idyllic existence, cut short by a crash of monumental proportions. This crash was followed by an eerie calm… even as the isle she stood upon tore itself to pieces. She saw countless fall to their deaths, through the skies they absentmindedly lived in for centuries. Even her parents fell through, as the isle broke down bit by bit… leaving only its central crystal barely floating alongside her. But even that was not for long, as she found herself floating lower and lower, eventually reaching a mountain range on the lesser moon.

OW! That hurt monster!

Miyo fell to the ground once more, pain slowing her senses. She too, found her life before her eyes, she saw a house, a boring, overly large and even more overly lavish house with no one inside but herself, and mountains of people coming in and out, never around long enough for a true impression, they may as well have been shadows. She saw endless days of waiting and waiting, for something, anything to give her freedom from that society she lived in. A society which entrusted her with a name so foul, a name she never asked for.

Master-!

Shari felt a strange compulsion, as though she were required to pray to an old friend. In her eyes it was not necessarily her life, but a single individual she spent much time with, albeit on his back. An individual of incredible importance, who taught her magic and wisdom. One who became what her parents could not, one who flew her from place to place on his magnificent wings, one who died before her in a blast of hatred and destruction incarnate, as he became the last victim of the calamity. Though perhaps she had died there as well.

Ah, I think I’ll be seeing him soon…

“RRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!”

All of this thought, all of this fear, all of this pain, was seemingly thrown to the wayside, as a magnificent roar came through it all.

“Mr. Dragon?!”

1: To tell a tale in a timely manner, without distracting from the details of this tale, I shall now give a brief overview of what was spoken about, the aforementioned older gentleman was in a rather lonely state of mind due to his wife’s passing and children leaving to serve for the Thirteenth Heaven war, and in this state, witnessed a young boy get attacked by a mysterious monster. Being an experienced exterminator for the monster corps the older gentleman killed the mysterious creature and saved the boy. Upon learning the boy was alone, the older gentleman took the boy in, and trained him. Unfortunately, this was all a cunning plan, as the boy was another signal symptom, like the creature the man had killed, born via the complete corruption of a baby by the blue signal Mezadolin. Knowing he could not kill the man, the boy gained his trust and trained under him, until he was confident he could defeat him. When the boy gained this confidence, he knocked the older gentleman out, brought him to the blue signal, and it corrupted him as best it could. The gentleman’s strength and age meant he could not be properly corrupted into a signal symptom, but he could still be brainwashed. Using this, the blue signal began to sow more chaos, until the Cleansing war began in earnest to destroy older remnants of the previous regimes. As time has passed, this tale has been corrupted into one where a man of great wealth is tricked by the grim desires of a mad child. It should be noted that I have skipped through many of the more intricate details, and even the end of this tale, but that is not something worth worrying about in too much detail.

2: Due to the floating isle’s worship of dragons, and most importantly the dragon monster god, Yrguhnorhim, their view on magic is in many ways flawed at best, or at worst built for a species far different than themselves.