Ep 12. Pay Your Respects. (7)
A soft groan escaped the red dragon as she made her way deeper into the icy cavern.
She’d long lost track of time since coming in. She could manage being drowsy, but the endlessly stretching walls of ice bored her to no end.
“Just how much further is this tunnel…? We should be almost at the end, right? It can’t stretch on forever!”
Raizel rolled her eyes at her friend.
“At least there haven’t been any traps since that damned pit.”
The steel dragon had been fidgeting with her broken wrist nonstop, trying to fix it as if it were a minor bone dislocation. Unfortunately it wasn’t, and she accomplished little besides the occasional crunching noises of metal that resonated from inside her bones, which were probably signs that she was making it worse.
Ilias glanced at Raizel’s wrist. The occasional screeches of metal began making her bored mind wander to strange places.
“You know Raizel, if you were to die, would your corpse rot? Or would it corrode?”
“…All I know is that you won’t even leave a corpse.”
“Huh? Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because I would’ve thrown it into a volcano already.”
“Hey, that’s not nice!”
“And breaking my wrist was?”
“That’s different. I saved you!”
“Can’t wait until you need some saving.”
One would expect Ilias to at least be worried about her friend, but she’d seen her mother healing other kin who were in much worse states. She didn’t doubt for a moment that Raizel would be just fine once they got home…although her mother may opt to beat them to barely healable states first for going off the radar the entire night.
Meanwhile, Bruton was trying his best to stay serious and ignore the girls bickering right behind him. His eyes were constantly checking on his shadowed double that was walking some distance ahead.
‘Hm?’
Bruton furrowed his gaze as he stopped the group, holding out his hand. It seemed like his double had momentarily flickered.
“Father?”
“Shh.”
Bruton sharpened his gaze at his figure up ahead. In an instant, the shadow evaporated as something cleanly sliced its head off.
“…Something’s up ahead.”
A pure white spear had shot out from the left wall – but this time, it wasn’t an ordinary trap. The spear of light rattled like a living being, and from the wall crawled out a luminous humanoid figure, shining in pure white light much like their weapon in hand.
Raizel squinted her eyes. Even with her astute experience of picking fights with things, she’d never seen anything of the sort.
“…The hell’s that?”
On the contrary, Ilias was boldly stepping forth as she eagerly swung her arms.
“Can’t you tell? It’s a monster! We finally get to fight things!”
The glowing figure fixed its grip on the spear, turning towards the group of dragons as it shot its weapon towards Raizel.
The dragon easily deflected it with her unbroken arm, scoffing at its audacity.
“…Well, whatever it is, it clearly doesn’t like us. It’s been a while since anything’s picked fights with me.”
“That’s because you pick the fights first, Raizel.”
“Shut up, old man.”
With its weapon gone, the glowing figure then immediately placed its hand against the wall. In response, the ice throughout the frozen corridors ahead began to glow in a similar light.
‘…That can’t be good, can it.’
The dragonlord’s suspicions were instantly proven true as dozens upon dozens of the glowing clones began to spawn from the frozen walls up ahead, each with their own weapon in hand. Soon, the corridor was practically barricaded with an army of its clones.
Raizel rolled her eyes at the sight. Judging from the strength behind the light spear she’d deflected, these things were of no significant threat to any of the dragons here.
“Really? First traps, now this?”
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“As they say, there’s strength in numbers!”
“…Who’s ‘they’?”
“I dunno, I read it in a book.”
Ilias casually replied as she held out her hand. Sparks danced within her palms momentarily before a burst of fire engulfed the corridor ahead, reducing a huge number of clones to smithereens.
As soon as the flames fully dissipated, Raizel threw herself into the fray as she drove herself forward with her unbroken arm in front. The metal dragon practically mowed down everything in her way, ignoring the weapons that were harmlessly bashing into her body.
“Raizel! Slow down!”
“Father, you know she’s not going to listen. Hurry!”
Ilias sped after the charging dragon, smashing the few leftover figures into the corridor’s walls while following her friend. Serenis was about to follow suit, but stopped herself when she noticed Bruton worriedly looking behind them.
“Bruton?”
“…Lord. Do you hear that?”
“Hm?”
Krrrrrr.
‘Something…falling?’
Before long, both of them could feel the corridor tremble slightly. The two warily eyed their surroundings, and soon, the source of the trembling came into sight.
A crumbling cavern was chasing the dragons from behind, threatening to bury them alive in a pile of ice.
“The cavern’s collapsing? But even Raizel couldn’t…!”
Serenis immediately summoned her mana wings and grabbed Bruton’s hair, pulling him forward hurriedly.
“Talk later! Run!”
✧ ✧ ✧
Meanwhile, Raizel had slowed herself down after realizing she’d charged far enough for Serenis and Bruton to escape her sight. She was only walking at this point, flicking her fingers at the barricading clones – which still sent them flying. Ilias was also still at her side, blasting their enemies with fire or kicking away the occasional ones that managed to approach them.
“Whew! I didn’t know you could sweat in such a cold place.”
“You’re only sweating because you’re blasting all that fire around.”
“Shouldn’t you be sweating too then? I’m doing it right beside you, you know.”
“That’s not…huh?”
In the distance behind them, Raziel could see the two familiar figures approaching them at massive speeds. They seemed even faster than when she’d been charging in blindly.
Ilias kicked away another three that tried to hack their axes at the dragons, looking at Raizel with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just the old bones catching up. Dunno what the hurry is though…”
“Hm? Oh yeah, now that you mention it…wait, is lord flying?”
“Looks like it?”
When Serenis was close enough, she screamed as loud as she could at the younglings up ahead.
“RUN!!”
Run?
From what?
Soon after their appearance however, even Raizel and Ilias could feel the rumbling throughout the corridor. The collapsing noise that was closely following their elders was another telltale sign of what was happening.
“Huh. Sounds like the entire place is falling apart.”
“Why’re you so relaxed?! Come on, we need to move!”
“Pft, it’s just some ice. We can crawl out if we need to.”
“Maybe in a thousand years, sure! Did you already forget how tough the walls were in here?!”
‘Oh yeah. That’s right, I barely left a dent.’
“…”
The metal dragon frowned as the gravity of the situation began to dawn on her. If the ice collapsing behind them was anything like the ones she’d tried to break, there was no telling if even a thousand years would be enough to climb their way out.
“RUN!”
“Tch.”
Both girls turned to face forward, madly clearing out their enemies as they began to run ahead. Serenis and Bruton soon joined the fray, doing what they could to reduce the enemies blocking their way with fireballs and beams of light.
‘Is there no end to this corridor?! If it continues like this…’
The cavern’s crumbling speed was faster than the dragons making their way through. If they could all summon their wings, or if the waves upon waves of armed figures weren’t blocking their way, things would’ve been different – alas, they had to break through it all nonetheless.
If there was one spell the dragonkin would never learn, it was a flight spell. They were simply pointless to the dragons who naturally possessed wings and could summon them at will, morphed or not. Even Serenis was thousands of years old when she’d taught herself how, and that was only because she truly did not have better things to do; but now, it was the only thing that was keeping her from falling behind her three kin.
At the forefront, Ilias launched another wave of fire at the enemies ahead. Her gaze sharpened as the smoke cleared up, spotting a speck of light in the distance that became larger and larger as they ran.
“There’s it! We’re almost at the end!”
Serenis bit her lips as she spared a momentary glance behind. The collapsing cavern was practically at the tip of their tails.
‘…We’re too slow. We won’t make it like this.’
And it wasn’t just her that had noticed. While the two girls at the front were busily clearing up the way as they moved forward, Bruton’s heavy expression betrayed his lack of confidence.
The elderly dragon faltered. He’d already tried blasting various spells at the collapse behind him in hopes that he’d be able to reduce them to dust, but even the collapsing ice still retained the same toughness as the walls that Raizel had barely left a dent on.
He tried to think of a way to buy even a sliver of time, but nothing came to mind. The ice was practically indestructible, and he had no power to slow down the collapse.
The elder then finally turned to Serenis, hoping the dragonlord would have a solution.
“…Is there no way to delay the collapse? Any at all?”
Serenis nonchalantly looked at the elder. Her human voice was calmer than the situation would’ve deemed appropriate – a little too much so.
“There is.”
“Truly?! What is it?”
“Keep going.”
“…What?”
“…☐☐☐.”
Bruton’s questioning of her answer instantly concluded as the binding took effect; she simply didn’t have the time to explain. The elder dragon continued his way forward just like before while Serenis skidded to a halt, facing the crumbling walls that were now almost upon her human body. A determined expression crossed the dragonlord’s face.
‘…You can do it, human body. You have to.’
First Dragonlord. Starchild Serenis.
The only being to ever be born with a gifted affinity to the stars.
Unlike regular affinities such as fire or lightning, the dragonlord’s affinity was a complex attribute that even she struggled to fully realize in her lifetime.
What did it mean for one’s affinity to lie with the stars?
It encompassed a level of control over the strengths and resources contained by and within a star. Being able to take from the star’s mana reserves was one of them, which she’d made use of all too often since becoming a human boy.
Unfortunately, even if Serenis could infinitely refill her mana, her current mana reserve as a human boy was but a mere fraction of what she once held as a dragonkin. As such, her abilities had been severely limited, and she’d instead relied on basic authorities like her draconic speech that required little to no mana at all.
But in this moment, as humans would put it: desperate times called for desperate measures.
‘Work!’
Serenis stomped once on the ice beneath her as the floor began to blaze in a burning white light. Her human heart throbbed in excruciating pain as her mana reserve was instantly drained; her knees gave away and her vision began to blur, severely shaking her focus.
The ice above her head began to give away. Moments after, giant blocks of ice crumbled out of the ceiling, plummeting down towards the human boy beneath.