Rise of the Dragon Sovereign

Chapter 6: The Dragon Tomb

In the end, Scarlet and Ward spent that whole day in bed, in a cycle of having sex, then resting to eat or sleep, or relieve themselves, then sex again. The next day, they had finally had their fill, for the moment, so they decided to venture out from the comfort of their yurt.

They went deep into the forest, first stopping at the secluded grotto, where the monoliths there were as active as the one in the village,

"While you were at the top of the mountain, every monolith went active," Scarlet said, "even the ones no one knows about,"

"Hmm," Ward mused as he inspected the golden characters on the obsidian surface,

"What, can you read it?" Scarlet asked

"No I can't," Ward said, automatically, "they're not actual words, more like runes to channel quintessence."

He blinked, then looked back at Scarlet, "How did I know that?"

"You're asking me?" Scarlet retorted

"It's really weird," Ward commented, "it's like as soon as I think about it, the knowledge just gets downloaded into my head."

No doubt this was another facet of his new power,

"So, like, you know everything now?"

"No, I don't know everything," Ward said, "but I do know where to find other monoliths,"

"Like this one?" Scarlet said,

"Yeah," Ward replied, "and how to do this,"

He touched his hand to one of the monoliths, and his mystic circuit activated, the patterns appearing all over his body.

"Impressive," Scarlet commented

"Not yet," Ward said as the monolith began to warp and deform, as if it was melting, clumps of molten obsidian fell from the mass as it began to reshape itself. It took several minutes for the monolith to be reshaped into a black statue resembling Scarlet, with the glowing runes still emblazoned on its surface

"That is a really good likeness," Scarlet judged, admiring the statue of herself, "you even got my bust and ass just right, I'm impressed,"

Ward huffed, "I was hoping for a little more animated response,"

"You forget; I know you better than anyone in the tribe, probably better than you even know yourself." Scarlet said, "I know exactly what you're capable of at any given time."

"Well don't you feel proud of yourself," Ward scoffed, before turning back to his statue, "Anyway, this is actually quite fascinating; I just had to focus on it and the obsidian reacted intuitively to my intentions once I synced with it."

Ward knelt down and picked up one of the runoff pieces of obsidian the size of a pebble, inside there was a pinprick of golden light,

"What are you thinking?" Scarlet asked

"The obsidian can hold quintessence, store it like a battery," Ward stated, "If I get this right, this could be monumental for future development. But I'll need to test it further,"

"We can get back to it after," Scarlet said, grabbing his arm, "c'mon, we need to get it done."

"Right." Ward said, leaving the statue of his lover.

They came to the grotto for another reason; it was spacious and private, the perfect testing ground for his new abilities and to see what sort of effect his brand had on Scarlet away from prying eyes.

Sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed; since getting that mark, Scarlet seemed to have gone through a sort of second awakening. Her gift was now several magnitudes stronger than it had been previously, with her now able to conjure and control blue flames hot enough to melt regular stone, also, her hair was now continuously on fire and she could alter its intensity at will, similarly, she had lost the barb at her tail and now had a flaming tip that she could also alter at will. As a result, her gift was almost always active, and even when not actively using it, her body temperature was quite high, and she could also spontaneously combust if she wasn't in control of her power. Of course this didn't harm her in any way, but her clothes were not fire resistant, and even her armor had its limits, so this was a problem Ward figured he'd need to address quickly.