Ep 10. Pay Your Respects. (5)
“Hold.”
Bruton, too, attempted to summon his draic features. True to his daughter’s words, he found it impossible to summon any of them back. The elder dragon then quickly turo face the barrier, making his way back to the other side. The barrier offered ance.
Immediately after, he summoned his draic features again – successfully. His wings were perfectly intact, as were his horns and tail.
“…Seems to be the barrier’s doing.”
Bruton gripped one hand into a tight fist as he drove it into the wall to the left, smashing the ito bits. If it was the barrier’s effect, the dragon figured that he could simply circumvent the translut wall by breaking open some space to its side.
Unfortunately, what he instead found was not an open space, but aension of the same barrier. In addition, the i the other side was securely intact, as if his strike had no impact across the thin wall of water.
Serenis frow the discovery of the barrier extending further, and the fact that the i their side had no damage whatsoever. She looked towards Raizel, who had been watg the elder dragon.
“Raizel. you try the same on our side of the wall?”
“Smash it? Sure.”
Raizel drove her own fist into the ice from the opposite side. She expected it to shatter effortlessly, just like how the ice had all the way here.
Instead, her strike left nary a scratch as the frozen wall absorbed its impact.
“…Huh?”
Raizel struck again. A thunderous noise echoed from the strike, but no damage was dealt to the cavern’s interior.
And again.
And again.
Nothing.
Finally, Raizel garnered a signifit amount of mana as she reinforced her arm, driving it into the wall with tremendous force.
A small dent appeared on the wall of ice. Then, it soon froze back.
“Hah…no way.”
“It’s not your fault. The ice within this barrier doesn’t seem to be the same as outside; it’s been heavily reinforced with mana.”
‘And not by natural meaher.’
Brutoracted his features once more and crossed the barrier, joining the three within.
“…It’d be a wise point to turn back. It’s quite clear the barrier was not built to wele intruders.”
“Intruders…”
Serenis thought about the statement.
The barrier had discriminated against the features of the dragonkin. That could only mean the barrier’s creator meant to treat the dragonkin as intruders.
‘Why? What is it about this pce that warrants such discrimination against the kin?’
“I’m not turning back.”
Surprisingly, it was Ilias that had broken the sileh her sudden annou. Bruton sighed as he began to reprimand his daughter.
“Ilias, this isn’t a trip; this pce could pose actual dangers. The mana’s density is unnatural, and you’ve already seen how tough the structure is within. We’ve even been robbed of our wings.”
“Exactly, father! How DARE they? I have to see what this pce is hiding.”
“What, you weren’t joking, old man? Go home if you want to. I’m not going anywhere until I see the end of this pce.”
“Raizel!”
“Besides, I like it here. Now you two know what it’s like to live without wings.”
The dragonlord was still deep in thought.
Morphing into a humanoid body was a tradition amongst the dragonkin, and a skill hatgs lear a very young age. But even if they were to morph, most preferred to keep parts of their draic features intact. ventionally, these features were the horns, wings, and tail – though some kin opted for more or less.
But if someone were seeking to take that away...
“Ilias.”
“Huh? Yes, lord?”
“ you try undoing your morph pletely?”
“pletely? Um…”
Ilias briefly took a moment as she closed her eyes, trating on undoing her morphed form. When her eyes opened again, she let out a disappointed sigh.
“…Sorry. Doesn’t seem like I do that in here either.”
“It’s not your fault. I only wao check.”
Whatever was in here, it was not meant for the dragonkin to reach.
And if Serenis’ heart was in here…
“Any of you are free to turn back if you wish.”
With that, the dragonlord began making her way faieps were much slower to avoid the ice that were now unreasonably reinforced, but she still showed ation iuring deeper.
“Sure, we leave that geezer behind.”
“Wait, I’m going too!”
As the two girls trailed after Serenis, Bruto out an exasperated sigh as he followed after them.
“Ilias, Raizel, how about you two go bae. I’ll apany the lord.”
“What good would that do? You’re weaker than both of us.”
“I hate to agree with Raizel, but this time she’s right, father.”
“How many times have I told you two, with old age es experiend wisdom?”
“…But isn’t he the oldest one here?”
Raizel poi the human boy, or more precisely, their supposed dragonlord. Serenis merely spared a momentary g Bruton and turned her eyes away, tinuing dowh.
“What’re you so scared of? It’s just some ice.”
Raizel kicked at the nearby pilr of ice to prove her point.
Unfortunately, the pilr lit up in a bright purple light, as if it was angered by the unwarranted violence.
“…Uh. Woops?”
Following suit, three spell circles appeared at Raizel’s side, each of them ung sharpened metallic projectiles at the dragon.
“Raizel!”
g! g! g!
One of the three iron bolts ricocheted towards Ilias, which she caught inches before her eye.
“…Woah, that was close.”
Raizel rubbed her cheek. It was trembling from the shock of the impact, but the bolts had failed to do much more oal dragon.
“Close for you, maybe. I barely felt that.”
“That’s because your head’s made of metal. I bet your brain’s full of it too.”
“…Is that an insult?”
“See?”
Meanwhile, Bruton was sighing in relief that her of them were hurt. But Serenis’ expression hardened as she saw the trap activate.
‘…Any other kin could’ve died to that.’
Could a few iron bolts kill a dragon?
Even dragons couldn’t survive rge metallic bolts pierg through their heads in their human forms. However, to have such bolts hit their mark would require them to be fired at aremely cle, or for the dragon to be rendered immobile – her of which were normally possible. The dragon would also have to remain in their morphed forms until the bolts killed them, lest the metals bee tiny stings after their transformation.
But this caver all of those ditions.
The space was retively enclosed. The excessive mana in the air hindered with deteg such traps, which could then be easily activated at extremely cles. Undoing their morph was also blocked.
Serenis looked on ahead. The frozen corridor seemed to stretdlessly like an enormous maw.
“…What is this pce?”
