Irene and Yin both left the cave within the mountain. Wasting no time, they went to search for Erza. The only issue was..-
"What do you mean you don't know where you dropped your baby off..?" Yin asked incredulously as they walked into an unfamiliar town.
"I never really got the village's name. I was.. distracted. But there were mountains nearby. And it was definitely in Fiore.." Irene muttered, the two of them drawing eyes as soon as they entered the town.
"Fiore.. okay so we're probably looking for somewhere near the coast but with a few mountains too." Yin replied before stopping in place as a man with a rugged face and short black hair walked up to them, doing his best impression of a charming smile.
But it fell flat, given he had buck teeth and a wide nose. He looked more like a donkey doing its best human impression.
"Ladies.. you look lost. Caaaan the great and powerful Pohori help you? I'm part of the famous Phantom Lord guild you know?" He posed, displaying his Guild mark on his hand proudly.
Yin smirked and wrapped her arm around Irene's waist, pulling her a little close.
"Ah really? We are lost, actually! You see, we've been training up in the mountains, my wife and I.. and we need to get a map. Would you happen to know where we may find one?" Yin smiled and dipped her head a little, giving him an 'earnest' expression.
[Acting level up!]
She almost laughed at the notification but kept her arm around Irene's waist. The effect was instantaneous. Pohori's face reddened as he properly processed her words. He put his hand in front of his mouth and nodded vigorously.
"Y-Yes! Yes! Magic shop there! Pohori..-I mean.. I can lend you a few jewels for a map if.. if..... if Pohori-" Pohori pointed to a shop as muttered to himself, lost in his own delusions while Yin pulled Irene along with her.
"Wow.. why did the prospect of us being married make him so....-" "Down bad? Well, one attractive woman is eye candy. Two attractive women who are together? Sometimes the mind wanders. Eye candy's distracting but fantasizing about two gorgeous women together is a whole step up." Yin explained, seeing a small blush on Irene's face as they walked into the shop.
'Must've been a while since she's heard or even listened to praise about her looks. That, or she has a praise kink.' Yin smirked as she imagined the ancient mage Dragoness having a praise kink.
As they entered the store, they saw a middle aged woman cleaning a communication lacrima. She looked up at them, mildly surprised by their looks and setting the cloth in her hand down on the counter.
"Welcome to Shirotsume magic shop. How can I help you?" The shop lady greeted, already guessing the two were mages. Though she was discreetly searching for any Guild marks, she figured their clothing hid them.
"We need a map of Fiore. You have something convenient like that?" Yin asked, unsure.
The shopkeeper hummed and turned around, going through her shelves until settling on a palm sized rectangular device with a small blue lacrima sticking put of the back.
"Usually you'll find maps at the train stations but these come in handy for mages on missions out in the wilderness. Just inject your magic power in the lacrima and it'll display the map of Fiore here on screen. And it'll show a red dot wherever you may happen to be. Whether you're on Mount Hakobe, Crocus, Magnolia or out in the middle of the Fishy Fish Sea, it'll accurately display where you are. In Fiore only though. Bunch of nonsense reasons why it can't display the other countries. You'd have to buy this from their shops if you get lost in other countries." The woman explained with a helpless shrug.
Yin hummed and nudged Irene's shoulder.
"You got money, right?" She whispered.
Irene sighed and nodded before asking, "How much?"
.
.
.
"Fifty thousand jewels for a fucking map.. what a rip-off.." Irene grumbled.
Yin snickered and shook her head. She took a peek inside Irene's magic storage. The woman had a legitimate mountain of gold, jewels and various other currencies. Fifty-thousand wasn't a lot in comparison to the hoard she possessed.
"Don't laugh.. I could have built such a device myself for far less." Irene huffed as they both boarded the train and sat in a private car reserved for just the two of them.
Yin shrugged, not bothering to refute her claim.
"You could have. But Erza's the priority, remember? We can't waste time, Irene."
Irene calmed down after hearing that. Sitting across from Yin, her brows furrowed.
"Then why aren't we flying over? We're far faster than a train. Even if I was just riding on your back we'd get to the coastal villages a lot faster." Irene stated, though she already had an idea as to why.
"Because one, the Magic Guild would lose their shit if they spotted a Dragon casually flying over the country. They have a Super Weapon and though I'm curious about whether I can eat that magic or not, it'd be less of a headache to stay under radar. And second, the most important reason. Acnologia probably wants a rematch and having round two happen anywhere near Erza wouldn't be good. I'm confident both you and I could beat him but not without a large chunk of land being annihilated in the fight."
Irene rubbed her temples and nodded. Truthfully, she had already guessed Acnologia would be a pretty big reason why transforming wasn't the smartest. There was just no way of knowing how far his senses could reach or where exactly he was.
She felt a headache start to form when thinking about that psychotic Dragon, so she looked at Yin and asked her a question.
"So.. you know quite a bit about me. But what about you? Who are you, Yin? I want to know more about my savior and traveling companion." Irene asked, leaning forward in her seat while her eyes gleamed with interest.
"Well.." Yin paused, thinking over the amount of time they'd be traveling and decided to start from the beginning.
"It all started when I was born. To one Raven Branwen and Taiyang XiaoLong.." Irene smirked and rolled her eyes, thinking Yin was just messing with her.
Thirty minutes later, she stared at Yin with a gobsmacked expression. It felt less like someone telling her about their life and more like an actual story. Irene sat back against her seat and remembered each emotion Yin spoke with regarding the numerous events in her life. The formidable fights she had? Excitement. The reunion with Yang? Love. Tricking that criminal boss into making out with a vagrant? Amusement. Being forced to watch something called 'Caillou'? Intense vitriol.
Then there were the absurd moments such as meeting her 'Goddess' Mother, fusing with Yang, exterminating a conclave of Vampires, fighting in an incredibly technologically advanced world, becoming a criminal and seizing control of the Underworld.
"Your life.." Irene chuckled, "Has been more action-packed than even mine. And I'm an old hag.."
Yin shook her head and tilted her chin up, letting her look into her crimson, draconic eyes.
"You never had much of an option to go out and do everything you wanted like I do. You were a Queen, then became pregnant, then became a Dragon while imprisoned. And hey~, despite your actual age I'd say you look no older than twenty five." Hearing that and seeing Yin take a good long look at her body made Irene blush. Though she quickly hid it and gave Yin a faux-stern glare.
"Don't go acting up, Young Lady. I'm much too old for you." Irene stated with folded arms that unintentionally pushed her impressive bust up.
Yin simply held up her hands placatingly yet never stopped checking Irene out.
"Now, since we have time to kill. Tell me more about these other worlds you've been to. I'm interested in your experiences.." Irene once more leaned forward, her interest practically radiating from within her.
Yin shrugged, leaned back in her chair and started with Arifureta. The talk lasted another half hour, which Irene felt had passed by in only a couple minutes. She was the most fascinated about the magic used in other worlds like in DxD, Arifureta and her own world in Remnant.
Irene had even started taking notes when listening to how differently magic operated on Remnant, Arifureta and DxD and temporarily fell into a deep focus about magic theory. She only snapped out of it when she noticed the sun was setting over the Hakobe mountains.
"Ah.. my bad. I think I hyperfocused for a while there." Irene muttered, glancing over at Yin, who was writing something in her own notebook.
"No problem. We're approaching Hargeon now. We were just in Magnolia for a few minutes. You looked like you were having fun so I started editing lyrics." Yin waved off her apology.
"Lyrics? For that next plan you have? What was it again.. you said something about celebrity status in 'Atlas'?" Irene asked, curiously peeking over the notebook.
"Yeah I figured I'd start with a few songs I knew that don't exist on Remnant. And getting power in Atlas is extremely tricky and time consuming. But celebrities have a pretty huge sway over the public in Atlas, so I figure I'd go that route. A career in politics would probably fail, given my Mom was a known bandit. The underworld doesn't really have much power in Atlas itself so I figured this was my best shot." Yin explained, pulling the note to her chest with a half lidded glare at Irene.
"I see. That makes sense then. But what kind of song contains the lyrics.. 'wanna squirt in your mouth while I'm riding'?" Irene asked with a playful smirk and an upturned brow.
"...Would you believe me if I said thinking about my sister inspired this?"
Irene guffawed, almost too shocked at how blunt Yin was. Then she shook her head.
"No, actually. Given how you've talked about 'Yang' it's not a huge surprise. Can I see the rest?" Irene inched closer, intending to peek at more of the lyrics.
Yin coughed and shook her head, "Nope."
.
.
.
"Hargeon town! Last stop, Hargeon town!" A conductor announced as he walked through the train car's halls.
He saw a few men and women hurrying off the train with reddened faces and hunched postures, not quite understanding why until he stumbled upon two women wrestling over a notebook. Though by the look of it, it seemed far lewder than just wrestling. He stammered, seeing Yin atop Irene while Irene leglocked her from around her hips.
"M-Ma'ams..? Hargeon.... um.... Hargeon port town..." The conductor muttered as he quickly stepped away from both women.
"Urgh.. how are you this much stronger than me?" Irene squirmed, her hips rutting against Yin's as she tried to break free.
Yin nearly closed her eyes in bliss before snapping out of it and getting up.
"Mmn... Ah, c'mon DragoMommy. We're here. No more wrestling 'til after we rescue Erza." Yin stated, smacking Irene's ass as she helped her up and got off the train.
"Haah.. whatever. I still got to see more lyrics~." Irene muttered, chuckling to herself as the two entered the populous seaside town.
'Tch.. this woman... She's making this Heat cycle extra hard.' Yin snorted before wholly focusing on finding the village Irene dumped Erza in.
.
.
.
After three whole days, the Dragon duo found themselves within Rosemary village at night. It wasn't as simple as asking around Hargeon either. As too few people tended to venture out of town. And any who did often just went to the Capital or any of the other populous towns around Fiore. It wasn't until they talked to the fishermen that they got a lead, as the fishermen in Hargeon had connections to pirates and heard that a few Dark Guilds were operating nearby.
They learned they were destroying villages and when the pirates came to find any extra loot nearby, they noticed no leftover bodies were kids.
Yin and Irene traveled to the village that had just suffered an attack a week prior, near the SouthWest mountains in Fiore. Upon seeing the ruins, Irene took a shaky breath and nodded at Yin, confirming she had left Erza here.
"Well.. I guess I'm raiding another tower." Yin huffed, glancing around the burnt ruins of the church Irene left Erza at ten or so years prior.
"I'd like to butcher these Mages myself, actually.. The very idea of Erza being dragged away like this..." Irene grit her teeth, feeling that maternal rage and concern start to return to her after so long.
Yin pat her shoulder and nodded to assure her.
"I'll let you have seventy five percent of them. I need to practice my Dragon Slayer magic at least." Yin stated, seeing Irene nod back at her.
"So where do we need to go now? You seem to know where they took my girl." Irene asked impatiently.
Yin pointed out toward the ocean shore teeth glistening as she grinned, "There's a tower being built there. Let's go crash into 'em."