Dragonlord

Ep 126. Do You Think Yourself Invincible? (4)

Light waded through the darkness with her torch, illuminating what little there was to see within the keep’s basement. After her unsuccessful search of finding anything useful upstairs, she’d been quick to make her way down.

But despite the copious amounts of cobwebs, occasional equipment, and expensive metals, the basement seemed devoid of anything suitable for treating the wounded.

‘Is there nothing useful here? Come on…!’

Rapid footsteps echoed throughout the stretching hallways as Light hurried through the dark corridors. The majority led to dead ends, or chambers filled with crates that contained nothing but gold and silver.

‘Nope, not here…not this one either…why do they keep nothing but metal in here?!’

As Light internally complained about the massive amount of treasure being kept within Telberk, she finally came across a peculiar wooden door.

It was clearly unremarkable compared to the other chambers’ entrances. There weren’t any metal carvings or locks upon the small entrance – which was odd, given the grandiose structure of all the other doors she’d seen.

And most notable of all was the sound of someone’s voice coming from within.

Light’s ears twitched as she tried to make out the noise. But even as the half girl listened, all she could hear were incoherent groans.

‘…What is that?’

Gulping, Light quickly retraced a few steps to grab a long, rusted pike from the rows of unused weapons. She then carefully poked at the door from afar with the weapon’s rear end, opening the door with an eerie creak.

Thankfully, no traps were sprung, and no rabid beast jumped out to feast on the intruder. The groaning sound grew clearer, but nothing happened otherwise.

Pressing down her fears, Light slowly peeked into the open chamber. But what she saw within wasn’t anything she’d expected to see.

Or wanted to see, for that matter.

✧ ✧ ✧

Clang!

“…”

When Hathelon swung down his axe, his weapon did indeed crash into something with a loud clashing sound. Considering that his target was a dragon of steel, the noise may have even been natural.

But what puzzled him was that his divinity-coated weapon was failing to crush through the dragon’s scales. It was fixed in place, as if the strike had been blocked completely.

When the deity narrowed his gaze, he belatedly realized that the massive surface of scales before him was white, not grey.

“Wh-”

Even as he pushed against the blocking surface, his weapon refused to budge.

And when the scaled surface stirred, his axe was effortlessly thrown into the air – along with its holder.

In his fall, Hathelon’s eyes beheld the blocking figure in full.

“You…?”

“…”

A massive white dragon stood between the deity and Raizel, covering the steel dragon in a gentle embrace. What Hathelon’s weapon had struck was not the youngling, but the white dragon’s back.

After letting go of the youngling in her embrace, the massive dragon quietly placed the unconscious steel dragon onto the ground.

She then turned to face Hathelon in full, glaring into their tiny figure. A pair of sapphire eyes seemed to pierce through the hero as he landed some distance away.

“That can’t be. You weren’t even a proper dragonkin…!”

“…”

Hathelon’s expression contorted at the dragonlord’s silence. He soon summoned back his ring of weapons, plucking out a hazel sword in each hand.

“…This changes nothing. You may have grown in form, but you cannot defy his great will.”

Instead of a reply, Serenis’ eyes studied the armored figure.

Despite Raizel’s efforts, small dents and scratches were all she’d left upon the deity’s otherwise intact armor. And even in her fully regained form, there was no guarantee that Serenis would be able to contest a blessed hero who wielded an infinite array of weapons – and a demonlord’s shell.

‘…Kelador.’

Not once had the colossal tortoise came at Serenis with his full strength. They were allies more often than not, and even if they did happen on a disagreement, Kelador would always yield to the dragonlord.

And while Serenis was quick to attribute such occurrences to the goodness of his heart, the velklord had always begged to differ.

- ‘You know, Serenis…if you actually tried, you could kill me pretty easily.’

- ‘I could not. If you were to fully armor yourself in your shell, then no magic of mine could ever harm you.’

- ‘Bah, you and your magic. You know what? Sometimes, I think you’d be better off without your star affinity. You’re so used to blasting through everything that you hardly think anymore.’

- ‘…That’s quite the long way to phrase an insult.’

- ‘No, I’m serious! Be creative for once! You don’t HAVE to pierce through my shell, you know?’

A soft smile curved the dragonlord’s lips as her friend’s voice echoed in her mind.

She’d smiled back, just like now. She’d never realized what her friend was saying at the time.

But when Serenis beheld the armored hero before her, her smile instantly melted away.

“…Do you think yourself invincible?”

Even Kelador had never considered himself invincible. And compared to the velklord, her enemy was much, much smaller – insignificant beyond words in comparison.

And that insignificant figure brandished his two swords, launching himself straight towards his towering enemy. Both his blades shimmered in divine light, readying to hack through the dragonlord’s scales.

“FALL!”

“…”

Giant claws raked the air, deflecting Hathelon’s dancing blades. The deity furiously hacked away at the talons barring his way, eager to reach the flesh beyond.

Serenis watched with an unamused gaze, continuing to deflect the deity’s strikes.

‘…If Kelador was here…’

With his colossal size, the velklord would’ve crushed her underfoot in one stomp, claws and scales and all. Compared to that, the hero’s attacks were laughable at best.

The dragonlord’s forearm collided with Hathelon’s blades, locking one another in place.

The deity forced his weapon with all his might, struggling to push his weapons through the scaled arm that blocked them. The radiance shrouding his blades continued to intensify as he poured more of his divinity into them.

But before the weapons would hack through the dragonlord’s scales, Serenis fixed her gaze upward – towards the glowing, cloudless skies.

‘…Perhaps you were right after all.’

Several events occurred in the seconds that followed.

In a momentary blink, Hathelon planted his foot onto the scaled forearm and discarded his swords, replacing them with a longspear to pierce through dragonlord’s scales.

But at the same time, darkened skies suddenly enveloped every corner of his world; a chilling cold settled in alongside an aching pain that spread throughout his body, slowing his movements considerably.

Serenis pushed the deity away with time to spare. Hathelon’s spear slowly and pointlessly stabbed into empty space, its target much too far to reach.

And when he would attempt to leap forward to close their distance again, he would finally notice the lack of footing – and air.

‘?! What in the world…?!’

Even as the choking deity darted his gaze, the dragonlord’s figure was shrinking smaller and smaller. The gap between them steadily widen, seemingly without end.

But try as he might to approach her again, Hathelon’s limbs pointlessly flailed in the emptiness, devoid of anything to stand or push off of. There was nothing but void within his reach.

‘Where…what is this place?!’

As Hathelon scanned their surroundings in a rush, he realized that they weren’t in complete darkness. Shimmering stars and distant orbs were scattered about the endless expanse of black, moving about in their destined orbits.

And finally, far beneath his feet, the deity took notice of a brilliant blue star.

The very world he’d served for ages gleamed in its vibrant radiance, far beneath his feet.

“…!”

Even as the deity’s expression contorted in his creeping realization, Serenis kept her mouth firmly shut. She merely waved farewell towards the hero that continued to distance away from her.

A desperate, soundless howl escaped the First’s champion. An enormous blade of light formed into being within his grasp, swinging down in a final attempt to cut down its foe.

But before the blade would reach her, the dragonlord disappeared from sight.

✧ ✧ ✧

A wave of nausea settled in as Serenis reappeared at an altitude with breathable air.

Truthfully, she had little idea just how far she’d teleported upwards with her assailant. All she knew was that the altitude they’d reached was far above any height she’d previously flown in – and far beyond the scope of what one could call sane.

‘I shouldn’t…do that again….’

Drawing raspy breaths, Serenis’ regained wings gradually guided her back down to solid ground. As exhaustion began to settle in, her form soon reduced itself back to its usual size.

And, try as she might, her throbbing headache was growing impossible to ignore.

‘…I still…have to…’

Struggling to remain conscious, Serenis turned to face the steel dragon.

Even though she’d protected the youngling from a fatal strike, Raizel’s body was still in a horrible state. Hathelon’s light had blown through the steel dragon’s scales in countless areas, leaving large gaps on the body that endlessly leaked in blood.

Serenis dragged her feet, practically stumbling forward as she made her way to the unconscious youngling. She held her pounding head and cursed her aching heart, wishing for the inexplicable pains to simply wash away.

But as it were, her exhausted mind was struggling to keep itself intact.

“…Rai…zel…”

A thousand visions flashed before Serenis’ eyes. Each piled upon one another to form a haphazard world around her, and the sounds that accompanied them mingled together into a cacophony of discordant noises, drowning out the reality that surrounded her.

Gradually, the dragonlord’s senses began to drown in a flood of memories. The world itself seemed to deteriorate as Serenis struggled to discern her visions from reality.

And soon, it would all fade to black.

✧ ✧ ✧

Somewhere in the distance, Felicir watched the stumbling dragonlord with crossed arms, grinning at the sight. Soundless laughter escaped his translucent form as she fell forward onto the heaving steel dragon.

‘Pft, of course. Not even you could possibly be alright after that. Even Aymeia needed years to adjust.’

Truthfully, the Reaper didn’t exactly have fond feelings for either of the two dragons. In fact, he was glad that mankind’s champion had at least managed to take down one of the two – though he might’ve preferred both over one.

But still, he was perfectly content to watch the dragonlord in tears, collapsing unconscious before the dying youngling. The entire battle had been nothing but a neat show for the wandering spirit, and its ending was turning out to be just as entertaining.

‘Though…then again, our local monster wouldn’t be too happy about my lack of reports. I suppose I could at least tell him what’s going on here…’

But just as Felicir turned away to return to Karas, a peculiar sight caught his attention.

The Reaper froze midair, his eyes glued to the dragonlord’s stirring figure. He watched on as yet another event unfolded, far beyond his own understanding.

‘What…the hell…?’