"The Elves aren't allowed to kill because of actual consequences, Rey."

Rey was silent as he listened to Adrien. There were a lot of things he had to say about the matter, but he bottled in his thoughts and kept an open mindjust as he promised Ater.

"No matter how threatening an entity is they won't kill them. It is forbidden by Nature, and if they break those laws they become blighted by the very course of Nature." He said, a twisted smile forming on his face.

"Pretty funny, right?"

"What exactly is your point? It's pretty clear that they only kill Dragons because of their command from The Oracle, and disobedience to that entity causes them to turn into Dark Elves."

There was nothing else to it, was there?

"Your experiment was unnecessary. You killed those Elves for nothing." Rey frowned.

"Don't be too quick to make your judgment, Rey. Do you really think I didn't consider that possibility as well?" At this point, Rey's eye widened and he took a deep breath. Apologizing to himself for getting so worked up despite the promise he made to himself, Rey closed his eye for an extended period before reopening it.

"Go on"

"With only one pure Elf left in my experiment, I decided to make a risky gamble just to test my hypothesis. I made them kill me."

"Kill you?"

"Yeah. I mean I didn't stay dead, of course, but that's because of a Revival Skill. I actually died for about a minute, and guess what happened within that time?"

"...."

"Come on just guess."

"She turned into a Dark Elf?" Rey answered nearly half-heartedly.

"NOOO! She didn't turn into a Dark Elf! Exactly that! Do you see what I'm talking about now?"

"What?" At this point, Rey found himself at a precipice of confusion. Adrien was no Dragon, and he certainly didn't have some kind of special bounty on his head by The Oracleat least, not that Rey knew of.

If that was the case, then the Elf should have transformed for sure.

"Maybe it's because you revived after"

"Maybe. But she should have been a Dark Elf for a minute before reverting back, at the very least. But I checked the record and no. She remains the same. I also revived one of the Monsters that was killed using a similar Skill, and guess what the one who killed it didn't change back to a normal Elf." Adrien was now grinning very widely as he looked at Rey. "What do you think about that?"

"That you are very meticulous with your experiments"

"Thank you, thank you but I meant about the phenomenon. Why didn't the Elf turn into a Dark Elf after killing me? What similarities do I share with a Dragon?"

"...." Rey had no words to offer Adrien.

The latter appeared exasperated, almost to the point of sheer frustration. It seemed he expected Rey to have already figured it out, but he wasn't getting the answer he wanted.

"It all connects to the Chamber Of Ancients, Rey and it connects to the order of the Oracle to kill the Dragons, as well as the reason why I consider the Elves no different than Monsters to me." Adrien said with a slight smile, once again drawing closer to Rey.

"What are you insinuating, Adrien?"

At this point, the boy couldn't hold himself anymore. He had to let out his discovery, so he parted his lips and dropped a bombshell that Rey wasn't expecting.

"The Dragons are Otherworlders too. They have to be!"

For a moment, there was silence in the tent. Both parties stared at each otherAdrien with a bright grin, while Rey with a much sterner look.

"What?!"

"Of course, I don't mean the new generation of Dragons but most definitely the first ones. Just like us, the Dragons must have come from another world. They propagated here, so the offsprings they have aren't particularly recognized as Otherworlders but technically they aren't natives of H'Trae."

Rey's eyes widened as he took in all of this information, surprised by how much it all made sense as everything began to connect.

"Of course, my theory has one slight problem and that's the fact that if The Oracle has registered me as a world threat like the Dragons, then killing me would be the same as killing them, hence making that the similarity we share, and not us being fellow Otherworlders but I doubt that is the case."

"Why do you doubt it?"

"Well, there's the fact that The Chamber Of Ancients is very similar to the Ancient Magic that brought us here, which makes it weirdly suspicious that the Dragons have it on their land. There's also the fact that I don't think The Oracle is very involved with the Elves, punishing anyone who breaks their rules. It has to be a natural reaction that can't be decided arbitrarily. Some sort of mandate by Nature that The Oracle just interprets. Sort of like your doctor telling you of an allergic reaction you'll have when you eat a certain meal."

In the case of the doctor, they weren't the one inflicting the allergy, but simply interpreting a phenomenon. In that same vein, Adrien theorized that the Elves had some sort of reaction influenced by Nature if they killed any Native of H'trae.

"The only way to really clarify this is if we let the Elves kill a random Otherworlder, who has no prior interaction with the Elves. If the Elf doesn't change, then my theory will be undoubtedly true. But. Otherworlders are in quite the short supply, and I can't use any more Revival Skills, so it's not a worthwhile investment."

"You"

"In any case, Rey, do you understand things better now? The Dragons are most likely Otherworlders like us and the mandate to kill them for being perverse entities to this world could also extend to me, you, Alicia and the rest of our classmates." All with a composed smile, Adrien laid all of this down.

And Rey had to listen to it all.