Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

The moon.

There were two of them, and the layer of illusion Lun’Kat had over them had ended about half a mile from the surface - lower than most clouds were on Pallos. The illusion was razor-thin, as most mirages were, and the ancient dragon had clearly not bothered to do anything so mundane as make it see-through on one side.

Above us was an endless illusion of a dragon’s eye, looking down on us just as much as it was looking up. I’d never wondered before what it would be like to be stared at up-close by a planet-sized eyeball, but now I knew.

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 893-> 894. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[Erudite Archmage] was getting so much weight in the background. I didn’t know how much of it was good - I was probably going to have to take the second or third-best class - but I was getting quite happy with the direction it was heading in.

It was terrifying on a primal level. Intellectually, I knew it was… acceptable. The lizard part of my brain was screaming that there was a GIGANTIC PREDATOR RIGHT THERE! ALERT! ALERT! RUN! HIDE!!

The ‘fight or flight’ reflex had landed solidly on ‘flight’, with my body seemingly forgetting that ‘fight’ was even an option. Staying in control when my body was so desperately screaming for ACTION was difficult, and Iona’s knuckles were white as she continued flexing.

On our way down I’d hit the illusion as hard as I could with [A Light Shining in the Darkness], carving a large hole through the mirage. Practically speaking, if anyone was looking at the moons as I did it, they might see a tiny little blip in a single speck - if they had good eyesight. It was nothing like when the titan had smacked Lun’Kat down and forced her to drop the illusion entirely.

The levels were epic.

Honestly, I was a little surprised there wasn’t more to it. The sheer weight of Lun’Kat’s illusion on the moons was literally unmatched by anything else I knew. She’d been running them almost non-stop since creation, and being able to metaphorically and almost literally poke it in the eye was an achievement and a half.

I was willing to bet if I flew around at illusion-level for a bit and just spent a bunch of time breaking it, I’d have a max-quality black [Breaker of Illusions] or similar class waiting for me. It would also help my [Seraph] class, assuming I wanted to keep going down the path.

Good class quality and skill levels, improvements around the board for everyone involved in this mission. Made me want to figure out other ridiculous stuff we could do, but it was really hard to top going to the moon.

Well… maybe we could try going to another planet, but I wasn’t sure how possible that was.

The moon itself was… bland. Dusty blue rocks as far as the eye could see, but virtually no ‘texture’. The land was flat, with no meteor strikes that I could see, no mountains, nothing. It took me some time to realize why it looked so weird and different.

The moons had been created, not formed, and it seemed like the gods had paid minimal attention to the fine details. No atmosphere meant no wind, and 30,000 years was nothing on the cosmological scale. No mantle and core meant no tectonic motion, and I realized the moons were virtually untouched since they were made. It was like taking a fairy ring to the past, as impossible as that was, and getting a glimpse of the world moments after creation.

Was this the sort of vast hellscape that Night had found himself on? Endless rocks as far as the eye could see, all in the same shape? Honestly, it was a bit of a literal miracle that the moon didn’t have a thick layer of dirt on it… but it would’ve been interesting.

I suppose if the gods had made the moons more habitable, there’d be a bunch of people living here by now.

Iona had the honor of going first onto the moon.

With my ruptured suit, I could survive vacuum, but didn’t want to test it. We’d skipped the airlock portion of the Argo II in favor of less weight, and we had a brief debate if I should be around for a pivotal, emotional moment.

“It’s important.” I argued. “I’ve survived a bunch of space jaunts on supply runs, and this isn’t that different. Except for the length of time. And the location. Look, if anything goes terribly wrong, I’ll jump into my [Tower] and be perfectly safe. I’ll be coming back to the same relative position, so it’s not like it’s a huge problem, and I could do the first construction supply run at the same time.”

Iona opened her mouth with a single finger upraised, then paused.

“You know what? I’m convinced. Ready?” She asked.

“Nope, hold on. Communication enchantments, let me grab the backups.” I said. I went into [Tower], bringing some trash along the way, and found a pair of agate earrings. I clipped mine on, then brought them out to Iona. I [Teleported] them through her helmet to skip the whole on-off process, neatly setting them on her ears at the same time. With a thought, I activated mine, letting me still talk with Iona even with the vacuum separating us.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 413-> 414]

“Ready?” Iona asked, gesturing with her candle. We’d brought a LOT of backups for the candle’s protection, and it was extra-wrapped. The wick was nearing the one-third mark, most of the candle burned away, but it had started large and fat, and we’d successfully kept it safe and protected this entire time.

“Aye, ready.” I confirmed.

Iona’s eyes briefly unfocused, communicating with her goddesses. I could feel the weight of divine attention and presence on us, a sort of static in the air, a pressure on my body. I gazed lovingly into her eyes, and got to witness the exact moment the stars in her eyes faded away, to be replaced by a black hole’s distortion.

Iona’s [Paladin] class had just overtaken her [Valkyrie] one. It felt odd and weird to me - I liked the stars more, and hopefully this was a temporary adjustment.

“Unscrewing the door.” She said, putting on her mitten-like gloves.

“Aye, unscrewing the door.” I had my hand on one of the air canisters, ready to break it.

Iona ‘pulled’ the door in slightly as she unscrewed it, keeping the seal tight with sheer force of MUSCLES. I grabbed onto my gauntlet tight with one hand, holding an air canister ready with the other.

“Ready?” She asked when it was all unscrewed, keeping the entire force of the atmosphere inside the shuttle with pure strength.

“Ready!” I confirmed.

Iona opened the door fully, shielding the protected candle with a hand, a blast of air escaping into the desolate moonscape. She slipped outside and slammed the door shut, starting to one-handedly spin the hatch. I cracked the air canister, then zipped over to the hatch, helping her close the door.

It was a little less dramatic than we’d hoped, but it was safer. Iona had worked on her words for ages. She’d planned for weeks what she was going to say.

“One small step for a woman. One large honor for Lunaris and Selene, sovereigns of the moons.”

With the Argo II once again airy and pressured, I took the moment to briefly [Teleport] out of the shuttle, wrapped Iona in the biggest hug I could all while my skin prickled, then vanished back into the spaceship.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 414-> 415]

I’d be damned if I went all the way to the moon and never actually set foot on it myself. That was just a gigantic NO, from every angle. Iona’s candle flared brightly with twin blue-and-yellow light, and I got to work.

Getting to the moons was half the challenge. Now we wanted to do something while we were here.

Besides loot a ton of moonrocks, because I was going to hoover up every last one I could find. The actual substance of the moons weren’t THAT sacred to the goddesses, and Iona had told me point-blank that they fully approved of my loot goblin tendencies here.

Once I had enough mana to spare. I was about to push myself to the limits - again.

We wanted to build a temple to the Moon Goddesses. It was why Iona had gone through all the effort of bringing a sacred, lit candle here. It added that much more significance to the entire time.

No time like the present to get started, and while Iona was devotedly admiring the moonscape - ignoring the hellish dragoneye sky above us - there was only so long it would last.

I teleported into [Tower], then floated high up to where our temple supplies had been stored, along with a thousand other knick-knacks. I grabbed the Standard of Exterreri - with a little Remus eagle subtly carved into the wood, a most excellent bribe - and as many of the basic building blocks that I could easily teleport around, and crucially, fit into the Argo II!

[*ding!* [Tower of Knowledge] leveled up! 302-> 303]

I teleported back to reality, and once again exposed myself to raw vacuum as I teleported out with the standard, firmly planting it into the dust. A tiny gesture, but a significant one.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 415-> 416]

My heart really wasn’t into shouting “FOR THE GLORY OF EXTERRERI!” or any number of other lines that people had come up with, and it’d be super hollow. It was an interesting thought. The place was my new home, but I was tight with Night and the Sentinels, along with the little village that had sprung up. There were the Valkyries as well, but they were naturally nomadic, and…

Yeah, maybe there was a reason vampires weren’t heading to the moon too often.

I didn’t know what to say. There was something about knowing the sheer devastation that the Immortal War was going to kick off that made it hard for me to get attached, knowing that it was all going to fall apart.

I’d done the research at the School, knew the statistics. Ennui was the single deadliest emotion to an Immortal, and had arguably done more Immortals in than even the most devastating Immortal war. I had wondered, back when I was traveling with the elves, why there had been so many troll statues standing out in front of their cave, waiting for the sun.

I didn’t wonder anymore.

I shook my head and refocused on the task. I’d planted the Standard of Exterreri! The bat flew once again!

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 912-> 918. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

Heart into shouting things or not, I’d successfully planted the Standard of Exterreri on the moon. Enough in a Sentinel’s wheelhouse that I was getting credit for it! Thinking about it - other Sentinels heading up to the moon would also be good experience for them… ignoring the awkward ‘always in sunlight’ parts…

Yup, a bunch of levels for me off that, and I was willing to bet the [Empress] had just gotten a level. At over 1500 and a vampire, that had to be a challenge, and a number of the other [Political]-types had to be leveling off it all. Might make them better at their job, and a large part of their job was ‘don’t let the big war happen.’

Everyone knew it was coming, but it was possible to delay. To let more people live long and fulfilling lives. To position ourselves better, to be able to save more lives. I knew exactly where I’d be when the first skills came raining out of the sky or boiling out of the sea. I’d be bouncing from the Sixth to as many cities as I could, culture, race, or nation be damned, and healing as many people as possible. Levels today improved my speed tomorrow, and the bigger and better my heals, the faster I could move, the more range I had, the more lives I saved.

All the thoughts flashed through my mind as I [Teleported] back into the safety of the spaceship, wondering if I should borrow Iona’s suit.

I ran the numbers, while meditating on what being on the moon was like. I’d stepped onto it bare-footed, and the searing heat was unexpected, as was how dusty it all was. It didn’t have a good analogy, because wind would blow it all away on Pallos. It was like super-fine sand over heavy rocks. I’d gone out bare-footed, and I wiggled my toes, letting the cooling dust play over my toes. It was fun! I’d been focused hard on moon rocks, but now I wanted to grab a broom and sweep up a few bags of moon dust!

[*ding!* [Celestial Mastery] has upgraded to [Celestial Spirit]!]

“HOLY CIRIEL! Uh, also, thank you holy Selene and Lunaris!” I shouted out, doing a wild little happy jiggle-dance.

I’d done it! I’d gotten it! [Celestial Spirit]!

It was a huge milestone. The [Affinity] tree was notoriously hard to upgrade, and Celestial as an element didn’t exactly make it easy. A bit difficult to expose myself to Celestial things, unlike Fire, Wood, Water, or other mundane, ‘easy’ substances.

The skill was a huge boon. [Affinity] was widely studied by the School, and there was enough data on [Authority] to have quite a few different books on it. [Mastery] was rare enough that the knowledge needed to be actively searched for, and all the School had on [Spirit] was that it existed, and was the dramatically more powerful version. I didn’t have hard numbers, but it was “well known” that it was required in order to turn into an element. There were enough scholarly remarks doubting and questioning the conventional wisdom that I wasn’t convinced myself, and just because it was a requirement didn’t mean I automatically got a skill dinging and offering to let me transform into a Celestial entity.

I seriously doubted it was in the [Arbiter] skill tree. It was possible, but I hadn’t read any stories about it when reviewing the books during selection.

[Spirit] was still strong though. At the very least, it was going to boost how strong and efficient all of my skills were, and further reduce my healing cost, on top of boosting my range, and similarly empower every single one of my skills.

One of the Sentinels seemed to think he was a Core Sentinel because of his [Ooze Spirit] skill! Granted, he did have the ability to turn himself into some weird Ooze that went faster every time it bounced, and I had no idea how to even begin to fight someone like that. Maybe applying a lot of fire to the problem? But it wasn’t like there was any biology to fight.

“I got [Celestial Spirit]!” I shouted at Iona, then remembered the earrings. I activated them and repeated myself.

“Whoa! That’s huge!” Iona broke out of her prayer to congratulate me. “Tell me more! I want to get it as well, if possible.”

“Yeah, I’d love you to! Here’s what I did…”

I explained the admittedly unimpressive events that led to the notification.

“... and I think it goes without saying that you should ask Selene and Lunaris for help?” I said.

“Good idea!” Iona went back to praying, and a few minutes later I was bored, having finished working out the math.

“Hey love! Let me get in your space suit, it’ll be about twice as fast for me to empty out the tower and get everything here. Then you can build it!”

Iona signed a thumb’s up, and continued her prayer. I jumped up slightly, trying to see how many spins I could pull off between my speed and the low gravity.

The answer was - I want to get off the ride. So much for trying backflips or anything else fancy. I figured Iona’s prayer might last a while - she was usually pretty good about fitting them into our lives, but this was a Big Moment for her - even though she was probably just bullshitting with Lunaris right now. Opportunity!

I popped into [Tower], and while I loaded myself up with a number of smaller supplies that I needed to bring out - no sense in wasting the teleportation mana overhead - I also grabbed a few more mangos.

Honestly, it was a bit of a miracle that I even managed to ever get some stored. I’d figured the trick out a while ago. I needed to bring about twice as many as I wanted to store into [Tower], and about half would end up stored properly.

While Iona prayed to her Goddesses, I indulged in my personal religion. The worship of the delicious mango. Moon-mango was a variant I hadn’t tried before! Time for mangomoon, part II!

There were often constraints in how I needed to eat my mango, and I had no issues simply sinking my teeth into the sweet and juicy flesh, but variety in mango consumption was the spice of life! I opted for a more ‘traditional’ approach, cutting the skin off, then neatly cubing the flesh left on the skin. We were on the moon, so I opted for a slightly different approach. I plucked out each cube off the skin, then gently tossed them up, delighting in how slowly it moved. Like a circus performer, I snapped each bite out of the air with my teeth, before popping up the next one. Waste not, want not, I scraped the skin clean with my teeth.

Moon mangos were the best, and I figured I’d try planting the seed up here. Sure, all logic demanded that it was going to get absolutely wrecked environmentally, but a combination of divine interference and mangos being the best fruit had my mental magic 8-ball rolling to ‘Outcome Uncertain’.

Iona rapped on the hatch, and I vanished into my [Tower]. I grabbed another set of building supplies - super lightweight wood for the most part, stone was so heavy that I couldn’t move a reasonable amount into or out of [Tower] - picked up a few more air canisters, eyeing the dwindling pile uneasily, counted to 100 twice, then teleported back into reality. Iona was pressed up against the side of the Argo II, making sure my return to reality was unimpeded.

Even a finger in the area I was trying to get back to would completely stop me, as would most other materials, vitality-reinforced or not. Iona had fortunately taken the chance while I was out to move the initial round of supplies out of the Argo II, and I cracked the canister the moment I was back. The sphere practically exploded, compressed air rushing out to fill the vacuum, and my skin stopped tingling a moment later.

“Everything all good? Success?” I asked Iona. Her face was alight with religious awe, a kid in a candy story.

“It’s… marvelous.” She said. “Everything I hoped for and more.”

I grinned.

“Well, hey, with me doing some hauling while you take a break, you’ll have lots of time to pray!”

Iona looked like she wanted to kiss me, which to be fair, was her normal state of appearance.

“Ready for the swap?” I asked. I was vaguely looking forward to being in a suit again for a number of reasons.

“Aye, ready.” Iona confirmed. I lightly jumped up, marveling at the low gravity, then [Teleported] Iona’s spacesuit onto me. It was way too large and awkward to move in, but strength and dexterity basically obliviated all problems.

By Ciriel’s crown, I loved the System. I could do SO MANY THINGS.

Iona stifled a snort when she saw my face through the plate. I looked like a kid wearing their parent’s clothing, but to be fair, I did steal Iona’s sweaters semi-frequently. Wifely privilege. They just smelled so good and were so comfortable!

“Alright, I’m going to get started.” I shot Iona a cheeky wink, which got her face to light up. “By the way, some light reading for you if you get bored.”

I teleported out a few books from my [Repository], along with a single spellbook. Most people could use spells, but wizardry was needed to write the spells. Basically, it was a book of talismans, in a sense. I quickly bailed out of the Argo II with another [Teleport] before Iona could read all the titles.

A look between gleeful and lustful crossed Iona’s face like a dirty old man’s as she saw the titles I’d selected for her, before switching to outraged as she saw the spellbook I’d picked out.

One for waste management, as it were. I did have Iona’s spacesuit now.

“Elaine!” She bolted up all outraged, communicating through the earrings. “No! You-”

I waved, talking over her.

“No time to chat, gotta get to work!”

I vanished without a pop, chuckling the whole way.

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