After making my way past the warriors, I silently rose into the air again. I was quickly starting to prefer flying over walking. There was something... elegant about being in the air, floating above this world's humans.
The cave before me stretched on, but off in the distance I could hear something. I could faintly hear the roars and growls of some sort of... creature. I closed my eyes and mentally prepared myself for the real possibility that what I heard was the dragon, which felt like a reasonable enough conclusion since so far I hadn't heard anything that wasn't human other than myself. I opened my eyes, anxiety making my heart beat faster.
I turned back to face the humans behind me and gazed at them for a moment. They stared back at me, fear, and awe visible in their gazes in equal measure. For a few moments, we silently stared at each other, uncertainty evident in each of our gazes. I was the one who broke the silence.
"I can hear something off in the distance. Some... creature. There's a real possibility that it is the dragon. This means Nadri is, in all likelihood, over there as well. I am going to go on ahead and try to free her. Hurry, and catch up with me when you can." I told the warriors, whose eyes widened in response to my words. They were still for a moment before they began nodding at me. I nodded back and turned in the direction of the noises I could faintly hear.
Once I was facing the direction I suspected my foes were in I shot forward, time around me slowing down as I moved faster than I ever had before. I felt my body reach speeds beyond my previous maximum, and I smiled. My body felt lighter than ever, and I felt, I knew, that this was the result of the power I had gained by defeating this place's guards, combined with the power I had gained by telling Nadri's would-be rescuers that I was the "Sun Soul".
My body felt almost supernaturally light and I felt as if I could walk, not fly, on dust particles and air. In the moments that passed, in my own perception anyway, after I began to fly at my new casual maximum speed, I felt my mind begin to expand as well.
"This feels... odd." I proclaimed, nearly silently, as I flew through the air, deeper and deeper into the cave. In mid-air, my eyes began to adjust and even as I sailed through the air of the cave I began to see more than I ever could before.
My eyes, adjusting to the cave, not only allowed me to see in the cave as they could before but I also began to be able to see a new, stranger bit of light. Everything before me gained a vibrant, almost red-tint. I didn't pause my moment and instead kept diving deeper and deeper into the vast area.
As I dove deeper and deeper into the cave my mind continued to adjust and expand, and I realized, what was going on: the upper ends of my capacity to see were being removed in response to my status as the "sun soul". I was gaining light-based abilities. This also explained how I could move faster... My body was itself gaining the properties of light, such as light's speed.
"Incredible... What if I pushed myself?" I asked myself, even as I dove deeper and deeper into the cave. Time around me was still moving incredibly slowly so after hesitating for a moment, I chuckled and decided to take a risk. I stopped for a moment and oriented myself so that I was facing in the right direction. I wasn't sure if I was going to be too fast, so I wanted to minimize the danger I was posing to myself and to anyone I wouldn't want to hurt.
I took a second to stare in the direction I was going to go. And then I took a deep breath and I pointed my fist out in front of me like I was Superman or something. With a big grin on my face, I hurled myself at my maximum speed in the direction of the various creatures at the heart of this cave.
The instant I began to move, I felt my body accelerate through the air at a speed I had never even truly conceptualized. It felt strange to speed through the cave, and as I did I was able to see everything around me.
I only allowed myself to move at that speed for one fraction of a second, but it was enough to cross the thousands of meters I needed to travel to be able to reach the heart of the cave. Where I needed to be to find the dragon and Nadri.
I found myself inside a vast cavern at the heart of the cave system. I was on the edge of it, having only just entered it from the largest entrance into it that I could see. It was a circular cavern several thousand meters wide, and at the center of it, in a deep depression, there was an enormous dragon, one straight out of the Asian myths of my homeworld. The gigantic beast was chained to what appeared to be an enormous tree that radiated warm light.
Everything around me was frozen, due to the truly immense speed I was traveling. I glanced at the edge of the cavern and saw perhaps hundreds of human warriors who were performing various tasks. The overwhelming majority of them wore the same masks as the other humans I had fought against mere minutes ago.
I took my time studying the scene and after a minute or two of scanning my surroundings, I finally saw her. Off in the distance, there was a young woman, the only one in the entire cavern. She was a few years younger than myself, and she was on top of a wooden platform. She was bound to something loosely resembling a stake.
She was wearing what looked like some sort of ceremonial robes and had a crown made of flowers on her head. She was awake and was staring despairingly at the dragon in the middle of the cavern. Her platform was being lifted and transported by people who gazed up at her sadly and didn't have on the same masks as everyone else in the cavern did.
Nadri herself had the physical features of someone who from my world would have been thought of as "Arabic". She was quite pretty and judging from her height, her features, and her face was in her early twenties or very late teens.
Tears were streaking down her face as she was being brought closer and closer to the dragon. The platform that was carrying her was being taken down a slope that led to the deepest part of the cavern, where the dragon was lurking.
I chuckled and "slowed down" so that time could begin to pass as it did normally when I wasn't activating my true speed. For what I was about to do to have the maximum possible impact I needed to have witnesses.
I needed to inspire Nadri's people and make our enemies tremble with despair. As time began to flow around me I felt myself begin to grow in power again, even as the light I radiated began to attract attention from the inhabitants of the cave.
I... "felt" the minds of everyone around me, and began to be able to feel their emotions even though I wasn't focusing on them. As I waited for time to return to normal around me I closed my eyes and when I did what I saw behind closed eyelids wasn't just darkness like it had once been. Instead of seeing darkness, I saw... shapes, auras, where I knew people and even the dragon was.
"So now I don't even need to rely on sight to know where people are? Fascinating..." I uttered, speaking audibly while floating over the cave. I opened my eyes and saw people watching me. People were silently staring at me, and I sensed their gazes, and the fear, confusion, and uncertainty I made them feel.
After a few moments of floating lazily in the air above the cavern floor, I turned to face Nadri. In her eyes, I must have looked like... a human-shaped silhouette that radiated stark, harsh light.
I could see the light that I radiated and though it didn't blind me or hurt me in any particular way I knew that it was harsh and stark to these humans. I knew this because I could see them squint as they tried to look at me, to figure out what was causing this clearly unnatural light to shine so brilliantly in the middle of this cavern.
I allowed myself a second to spin in mid-air and take in the fact that everyone was staring at me. Even the dragon, chained to its strange tree, had its cold, cruel, reptilian eyes locked on me and was silently watching to see what I did. I chuckled softly and then began to speak.
"I am the Ackatrayelu, the sun soul. I have been summoned by the prayers of the people. And today I perform an act of mercy." I declared, before beginning to smile. I turned towards Nadri, and pointed a single hand at the platform she was on top of. As I moved physically, I moved mentally, aiming my mind like a hand at the platform the young woman was on top of and hoped that among the powers I possessed was something like telekinesis.
For a few moments nothing happened and the only reason none of my foes acted was that everyone was taking in my presence and processing my abrupt appearance. That said, I quickly and quietly felt the platform begin to shake and strain against my mental touch.
I almost shouted in relief and triumph when I felt the weight of the platform almost vanish from my mind for a brief second while the thing began to float into the air. It floated slowly and unsteadily, which was annoying and forced me to keep Nadri herself bound for a moment. As annoying as that was I was still grateful to have unlocked this power at this key moment. It was an easy choice for me to make to continue to experiment with my mind.
Instead of doing something physical, I continued to float in the air untouched by my foes as they faced another distraction. My appearance and my awakening of telekinesis freed Nadri's people who had been tasked with delivering her to the dragon.
When they felt the immense weight of the platform be taken off of their shoulders they let out a triumphant cheer and began to shout praises to me. This threw off my enemies, the Toreans, who were shaken by the intensity of the cheers of those they had oppressed.
While the men cheered I silently gazed at Nadri who was gazing hopefully at me. I felt the intensity of her emotions, her elation and utter joy at being rescued from the jaws of a beast as cruel as a dragon. I closed my eyes and attempted to touch her mind, focusing almost as much on that as I was on keeping her platform aloft in the air and away from the dragon's jaws.
I visualized a line jutting from my mind to hers and connecting our brains. The instant that I did that I was pleasantly surprised to feel an immediate connection to her form, one that allowed me to not only feel her emotions but even read her mind.
As I read her mind, or rather as her thoughts poured into my mind, I realized that she was quite intelligent. She felt the same intense joy and relief that the men of her people below her felt, but she was silent because she didn't want to attract the attention of their enemies, of our enemies. She was consciously keeping quiet to try and make things easier for me, which was a small act of kindness that I could appreciate.
I kept my eyes closed and attempted to... send her something via the somewhat abstract line that connected our minds. What I was trying to send her was a message, words that would reveal what I wanted her to do. I crafted the message nearly instantaneously, thanks to the power of my mind which was supercharged compared to how it had been on Earth.
"Hello, Nadri. Your father's piety is what shall save your life, but before you can head home I wanted to make contact with you first. I am speaking to you in thoughts rather than words. Can you do me a favor and nod if you can hear and understand me?" I asked, via our telepathic connection.
I kept my eyes closed, but I could read Nadri's mind and I felt her thoughts when she nodded at me which made me smile.
"Excellent! I am going to keep you bound to the platform for now, just for a few more moments. When you are safely on the ground I shall bring some of your men to you so that they can free you and you all can flee together. I need to take care of the Toreans and their dragon." I informed her. Her heart was pounding intensely, which was an understandable physiological reaction to her current circumstances but to her credit, she nodded at me and my grin widened.
I focused my mind entirely on her platform and lifted it high into the air. It was at this point that the Toreans finally returned to their senses and began to shout orders and organize themselves effectively. Toreans at the top of the cavern, including some not far from the entrance I had used to enter the cavern began to rally themselves and dash in the direction of Nadri.
I pointed at them and chuckled, before entering my hyper-speed state of mind and watching as they crawled to a nearly complete stop due to how fast I was. I pointed my other hand at one group of them and lifted them off the ground with telekinesis.
Nadri's platform weighed hundreds of kilograms so I was unsurprised that it was so easy for me to lift even dozens of Toreans into the air. They remained frozen while I picked them up and so they stayed frozen even when I moved them so that they were in the air above their companions. I let go of them and they remained in the air due to the currently almost nonexistent flow of time. I didn't bother slowing down just yet because I wasn't done.
Soldiers near the dragon were rallying as well and some of them were smart enough to try and go to the dragon. I basically "froze" time right as a warrior was within a few yards of the dragon and was clearly moving to free the beast. I chuckled at that warrior's raw instincts and then targeted him.
"Telekinesis is... vicious." I uttered as I grabbed the man with my mind and with the mental version of a pull, tore his head from his body. It was at that precise moment that something I hadn't expected occurred. The dragon's gaze turned from me to the now headless soldier.
I watched the beast's head tilt and saw the anger in its gaze. It wasn't a rapid motion, but it was a motion nonetheless, indicating that the beast was capable of some limited movement in speeds that neared my own. The dragon stared at the headless body of the soldier, before languidly turning to face me and beginning to open its mouth in rage.
"I see... So you want to fight me, do you? I suppose that's fair given that I deprived you of a meal. That said, I am not interested in fairness." I uttered even as the interior of the dragon's maw began to glow with sinister, molten-colored light. It was slow but I could respect the beast's dedication. It was time for a duel with a dragon.