Mid Morning - Early Winter : Western Siratha Space Rune

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- Unknown Dragon ~

*distant crunching* -Are they finally doing something?- Hearing some noise off in the distance, I slowly shifted my head to peek around the rock I was laying behind. -Is one of the targets coming?-

I watched in silence as the dragons on the opposite ridgeline hastily moved around and prepared their things before one of them finally picked up The Artifact and started activating the runes on it. -So they're planning on using it? It must be the Ragnarok that's coming then...-

Immediately remembering what my superior told me about the artifact, I slowly stood up and snuck into the nearby cave that cuts through the mountain.

It felt a bit odd to have to leave the area of the group I was told to watch over, but I had no reason not to abide by my superior's warning: 'If you can see it, it will f*ck you up.'

It was honestly such an aggressive warning that it made me curious. -Just what does that artifact do for me to use a mountain to shield myself from it?-

But I had no plans to stand around and satisfy that curiosity. I was simply going to do as I was told: 'Wait at the space rune until the sky turns white, then leave immediately.' -Simple enough...-

Finally making it to the other side of the mountain, I left the cave and glided down the mountainside toward the space rune.

*vwoop* The moment I got there, I configured the rune and made sure everything was ready for a swift departure, but as I slowly looked back up toward the sky, a simply indescribable beam of light streaked across it. *BRRRMMMM*

"Huh?!" It wasn't quite what I was told to look out for, but instead of immediately assuming I misunderstood my superior's explanation of what to look for and leaving for Bahamut, I waited another moment.

If I knew what I did now, however, I would not have waited for a single instant.

*FLASH* The instant I showed hesitation, a blinding light filled the air around me, leaving only an unfathomable silence and my other senses to keep me company.

Before I could even react, my eyes started burning as if I opened them while submerged in unfathomably hot magma, and my skin and scales felt as if they had started melting.

Thankfully though, I finally managed to react and activate the space rune before the paralyzing feeling of death could grip my mind.

*vwoop-TSSSSSS* An extremely loud sizzle filled the air as I collapsed and felt cold stone beneath me.

I still couldn't see, but my mind was too preoccupied with the pain to notice.

*thump-thump-thump-thump* The noise of someone running toward me met my ears as I struggled to form a coherent thought.

"We..n't y..u told t.. n.. be n..r it ..en it go.. o..?!" The voice I heard was faintly familiar but was too muffled for me to understand it.

After hearing the voice, I laid there for what felt like an eternity, but eventually, a few dragons picked me up, finally snapping my mind out of survival mode.

But that didn't mean I could think straight.

My thoughts were still in shambles. I couldn't see at all, my hearing was severely damaged, and a majority of my body was numb except for my underside, where I felt the other dragons touching me.

Eventually, though, I felt myself get laid down on some kind of cloth, and let my body relax, but the moment I did, I lost consciousness with only a mix of confusion and fear to accompany me.

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- Vasilias ~

*BAANG-CRUUUNCH* The mountain exploded as my railgun magic blasted through it. But an instant later, the stone all instantaneously melted, and a light brighter than the sun blasted into the air.

-SH*T!- Knowing Grandmother couldn't handle a nuclear blast in her current state, I threw her behind me and prepared the only spell I could use to counter it in time.

-I need to worry about the repercussions later!- Instantaneously creating several grams of antimatter, I aimed toward where I thought the source of the blast was and covered the sides of my mouth with an impenetrable wall of space mana.

It was an insane plan, but feeling Ilios's aura behind me gave me confidence. -Here goes nothing!-

*vwoop-pop* A silent pop resonated through my body, as I tensed up and used more space mana to brace myself on the fabric of space.

But I didn't have time to worry about the unusual sound.

*BAAAAAAANGGGG* The moment the antimatter exploded, a beam of light infinitely brighter than the explosion appeared, instantly engulfing the epicenter of the other explosion like a grouper swallowing a small fish, before expanding into a colossal cone that engulfed everything behind the mountain.

But saying it only lasted an instant would be an overstatement.

Before I could even process what had happened, the pure white beam expanded into the surrounding air, separating its pure white color into a nearly infinite number of other unimaginable colors.

My head instantly started aching as if I had tried to look into the past or future, forcing me to close my eyes.

But even though I felt like I reopened them instantly, by the time I did, the array of unfathomable colors was replaced by a wall of black smoke mixed with white steam.

I floated there, stunned for a moment while I tried to process what just happened, before promptly being interrupted by an extremely odd hum. *vwowowowmmm*

Immediately looking toward the noise, I saw the massive wall of abyssal blackness that had formed around my body like a dense cloud.

It only took me an instant to recognize what it was as well. -Maybe.. using the fabric of space to brace myself was a bad idea...-

Quickly releasing control of all the space mana I used to brace myself, the cloud quickly started dissipating, revealing Ilios seemingly standing on nothing with Grandmother behind him in her dragon form.

Thankfully, they both looked unharmed, and with a quick check of my aura, the air around them was still fairly cool, especially when compared to the blazing plasma that composed the air in front of me.

Still unable to suppress my worries however, I didn't hesitate to break out of the cloud of gates that encompassed me and immediately darted over to Grandmother. "Are you alr-"

But the moment she saw me, she threw herself at me with a pale expression. "VASILIAS, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" *WHAM* She slammed into me in her flurry of panic, but I managed to keep us in the air with thruster magic.

"Yes, I'm fine." I wanted to let out a breath of relief, seeing that she was truly unharmed, but I couldn't help but be worried by her panic. "Don't worry. Something like that is far from enough to hurt me-"

"Don't worry?!" She seemed genuinely mad. "Artifacts like that can make entire cities disappear!" She yelled as she carefully inspected my body for injuries or damage.

I ended up just staying still for a moment while she carefully inspected me, but after another moment, she finally started to calm down some.

"Thank Bahamut you look alright..." Her worried expression looked just like Mother's. "Do you have any internal injuries?"

"N-no..."

Her panic slowly started to fade after another moment. "Phew... We must have been really lucky-" But her voice was cut short the moment she looked up toward the mountains.

-Huh?- Thinking it could have been something bad, I heightened my senses again and looked over, but instead of seeing something dangerous, I just saw a huge circular section of the mountain glowing orange as molten rock started flowing down the mountainside, with a circular section around 30 meters across that was completely devoid of matter, where the beam I fired passed through.

But the sight behind it was what took my breath away.

Instead of seeing the second ridgeline that hid away the space rune, I simply saw the ocean, steaming as molten rock flowed into the water from the two inside edges of what used to be a mountain ridge.

The exact area that was meant to have the space rune was toward the edge of the damage, but although it was still engulfed in a cloud of steam, I already knew what happened to it. -Ah, hell...-

In my eyes, seeing it missing felt like adding a troublesome chore to my to-do list, but to Grandmother, it was the sight of an irreplaceable relic being destroyed.

Once again looking back at her heartbroken expression, I tried to comfort her. "I can make a new space rune, Grandmother. Don't worry."

But instead of calming down, she jolted slightly and turned back to me with a look of concern. "You can.. what?"