Dust rose covering the enormous figure that crashed down. Ynos who had left moments ago came rushing back to my side, he didn't move head-on and instead decided to group up, still, this wasn't the time to be surprised.

"Essie! Down now!" I urgently called out to her. Thankfully, she didn't delay, and seconds later she was already seated on top of my head, her tiny body shaking.

Immy who was laying leisurely by the side was now standing at attention, her body constantly leaking a dangerous aura as her scales began shining with a bright white color. At some point, a dark cloud suddenly appeared to my left as Sidus's figure materialized, his eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the giant figure collapsed a distance away from us and then back towards the dark clouds in the sky.

Red lightning flashed endlessly, followed by a thundering boom. My dragonic instincts screamed danger at me as I felt a dangerous aura looming overhead. Tearing my attention away from the sky, I looked back at the collapsed red dragon.

"Fuck me, father?!" My voice cracked, yet I did not dare move carelessly. The constant rumbling of the thunder felt akin to a blade hanging above my head threatening to descent at any given second.

Ynos's eyes were bloodshot as he looked at father's collapsed figure, his fate was still unknown as blood oozed from his pores. Most of his scales were broken, some were directly torn off. This was the first time I had ever seen the mighty figure of my father in such a sorry state.

"B-Brother, what do we do?" Asked Ynos through gritted teeth. He could barely hold himself from rushing to father's side, and he wasn't alone, all of us were anxious yet we simply could not make a move.

The dangerous aura was suppressing us, preventing us from moving. It vaguely reminded me of the aura that surrounded the stairway during my naming ceremony. Back then, all of the younglings were forced to walk, yet thanks to my affinity with the cosmic mana, I didn't have it hard.

This time, however, It was completely different. I could feel that the owner of the aura was not even locked into us, yet even so, we were already this helpless. 'Think Aether, think! The Gods? No, that's impossible, though I didn't meet a lot of them, according to grandmother, and from what I saw back in Amanita's ruined battlefield, none of them should be able to overwhelm father like this, unless they ganged up on him, but even so, what would they gain from doing that? So if not the Gods, then...the Shades!'

A silent curse escaped my mouth as I tried to make out what was happening behind the dark clouds. My senses told me that a fight was unfolding high above, yet the current me was not qualified to participate. 'Fuck, what do we do? Run? Run where? Wait, grandma!'

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My mind was spinning as I tried to think of a way out of this, Immy who was constantly emitting a bright holy light urged me from right, "Brother, we have to move!" As soon as she said that, a small obsidian meteor came crashing from the sky and into the land below, a distance away from our floating mountain.

After the first one fell, countless others followed. Not giving us any time to react, a dozen obsidian meteors came crashing towards our mountain. "Careful!" Without thinking, I summoned a large water shield surrounding us all, including father's unmoving figure.

Yet to my surprise, the second the first meteor came close to the mountain, an abnormally bright light shone from the peak where the dragon statue was situated, following that, a transparent bluish shield materialized, encompassing the entirety of the mountain.

The second the meteors came in contact with it, a faint dragon cry echoed out before they completely evaporated. "The statue?" Sidus mumbled with a shocked expression. Immy and Ynos were equally surprised while Essie surprisingly didn't seem to care much about anything that was happening, her eyes instead were glued on father's body.

Before anyone could react, an abrupt strong gust of wind suddenly carried father towards us. Essie who was seating on top of my head jumped down with a focused expression, her legs were shaking yet she prevailed, slowly bringing father closer.

Snapping out of it, I hurriedly called out to the others, "Quick, help Essie!" Saying that I instantly summoned a gentle wave, helping drag him along. Due to the insane pressure, our control over the mana seemed to be severely crippled, preventing us from using our full strength.

Seeing that, Ynos, Immy, and Sidus hastily directed their mana to help out. Slowly but surely, father drew closer to us before we finall managed to set him down.

A gasp escaped Essie's mouth as we glanced at father. 'I knew it was bad, but I didn't think it was this bad...' I inwardly muttered with a solemn expression. His body was littered with wounds of varying sizes, with a glaring one on his chest.

'It's a damn hole!' I gulped, and that wasn't even the worst of it, father was missing his right front limb, while half of his tail was cut off.

Without much time to think about it, I instantly channeled whatever water mana I could use to start healing his wounds as I could still sense a very faint life sign from him causing me to let out a sigh of relief.

'Of course, father can't die just like that!' I tried to reassure myself.

My water mana slowly but surely managed to close the various tiny wounds and cuts, yet the more glaring ones remained, something was interfering with my mana preventing it from closing the wounds.

I couldn't do much to stop the bleeding, and as if sensing that Immy quickly moved to my side and began to channel her holy mana to help. "Immy?"

She glanced at me and replied, "I can help stop the bleeding, but I can't close the wounds,"

Nodding I quickly answered, "That doesn't matter, it's already better than doing nothing!"

Nodding, I watched as a white holy light surrounded our father's missing limb, chest wound, and tail, after a while, Immy retracted her mana looking exhausted.

To my surprise, the wounds appeared almost as if they were burned as his flesh seemed to close off. I turned to glance at her after which she shook her head. "It's only a temporary solution brother, father needs immediate care,"

'Just what the hell is going on?!'