"Fuck!" David cursed. It was almost eight times more expensive than the price he'd 'acquired' a True Dragon for. Still, according to Yolanda's explanation, it didn't seem like Tiamat was deliberately trying to rip them off. After all, as the saying goes, it's easy to descend into Hell, but hard to leave it. And indeed, this was true for every outer plane.
The sixteen outer planes rotate slowly like a great loop within the Multiverse, while the myriad material planes are like dust swirling endlessly around this loop. Even in terms of mathematical probability, the difficulty of charting a course from the dust to the great loop is orders of magnitude lower than the reverse. The reverse would be akin to standing on the ground and shooting a marble at an interface on a satellite orbiting Blue Star at Mach 23. The marble would then have to land precisely in an astronaut's wobbling cup—all without the marble breaking or the cup cracking. And this scenario already assumes a deity is assisting with the location. This was why the majority of Devils and Demons from the lower planes relied on contracts, summoning rituals, or special Teleportation Gates to reach the Prime Material Plane.
David did a quick headcount and calculated the cost. Then, feeling rather vexed, he waved his tail at the Dragonkin and Vassals in the distance, who were pretentiously overseeing the reconstruction of the Dragon Nest.
"Have you thought it through?" Christoph asked, like a kindly old neighbor.
"I've thought it through, but I'm short on the round-trip travel expenses."
"Oh?" Christoph pretended not to hear.
David had no intention of dragging out the conversation with this old dragon any longer. "I have a way for you to officially use the Well of Miracles in the Elven Kingdom of Saeolus as a passage."
The old dragon didn't ask how. He believed that since David dared to make such a claim, he must possess the capability. Christoph narrowed his eyes slightly. "Name your price."
"One thousand two hundred pounds of gold," David stated, with a typical dragon's avarice, quoting the fee for eight round-trip passages to Hell.
Yolanda, who had just excused herself, heard her father's wrathful roar from behind: "Ka'mos ska'thars! Why don't you just rob me!" She couldn't help but cover her mouth and let out a light laugh. Since her father had returned to Barto Hell and met her mother, he had seldom erupted into such pure anger. And David was the first being to not only emerge unscathed from such fury but also achieve his goal.
Christoph, driven by the burning desire for revenge in his heart, eventually purchased his passage to vengeance from David's claws, paying half the usual fee.
But when David requested a pile of silver from the old dragon, immediately refined it into Silver Water, and then began to apply it to Christoph's scales like paint, the old dragon shot David a look as if he were an utter fool. "You don't seriously take those High Elves for idiots, do you?"
David, who had already pocketed the money, was having none of it. "So, are you going to get your revenge or not?"
"..." Christoph remained silent.
"Remember the humiliation of being trampled underfoot and ridden upon by the Drow..." David goaded, his voice like a demon's tempting whisper. Content originally comes from NoveI[F]ire.net
「A week later,」 the 'Dragon's Mercenary Group,' led by Christoph and now coated in silver paint, followed David's lead. After presenting a noble's crest at customs, they were indeed allowed to pass unnoticed into Saeolus territory. From there, they marched directly to the Well of Miracles, which was now utterly devoid of Elves.
"Ancestor Christoph, please enter the earth," David said. Having exchanged greetings with Mirillian, the Duke of Silver, from afar, he withdrew his gaze and pointed his tail at the gaping cave entrance.