Ep 13. Pay Your Respects. (8)

  “…Piss off!”

  Raizel smmed the st of the es into oblivion as she leapt out of the cursed corridor. A series of heavy pants ensued as she tried to catch her breath from the tireless running.

  Following suit, Ilias jumped out of the corridor with a bzing trail behihe red dragon turned back to see her father following right behind, esg the narrow corridor after her.

  “Finally! We made…it?”

  Ilias was about to celebrate their escape wheedly realized the dragonlord was missing.

  “…Lord?”

  She threw anaze towards the corridor. The colpsing had somehow came to a halt, and she could see the little boy in the distance behind her, barely standing upright with their shaking legs.

  “Serenis!”

  Ilias threw herself back towards the corridor to retrieve the dragonlord, but a heavy grip on her shoulder stopped her from doing so. Wheurned back, she found her father’s unfiving hold keeping her in pce.

  “Wha…father, let go! Serenis is still in there!”

  “You are not going ba there, Ilias! Look closer!”

  “…What?”

  At her father’s angered outburst, Ilias studied the corridor more carefully.

  The crumbling blocks of ice looked like they’d resume their colpsing at the slightest touch. A number of ice blocks were in fact levitating right above the dragonlord’s head, lightly shaking as if they were barely being held in pce.

  “The colpsing hasn’t stopped. The moment you step ba there, you may end up buried as well.”

  “So what?! We’re going to sit here and watch?!”

  “…”

  Bruton failed to answer Ilias, but he didn’t let go of the iron grip on her either. He wasn’t willing to risk his daughter’s life on some strahey’d just met.

  “…Father, let go.”

  “No. You’re not going ba there.”

  “Father!”

  Raizel grimaced, notig the dragonlord stranded in the corridor. Irritation was evident on her face as the metal dragon kicked her tongue.

  “…Tch.”

  Meanwhile, Serenis struggled to keep her eyes open. She could barely make out the fact that her spell had succeeded, albeit temporarily.

  ‘…Did they make it out?’

  She couldn’t tell. And if she turned around to check, there was no doubt that the crumbling would resume, crushing her underh.

  In what little space she could manage, Serenis had temporarily erased ‘gravity’ altogether. There was no way she could lift this iructible ice with the amount of mana she had at her arsenal. But if she could simply erase the notion of gravity, then even if the entire cavern had crumbled, the ice would have no reason to fall.

  But with her maion taking a much heavier toll than she’d hoped, the dragonlord was realizing that making it out herself would be impossible. She could barely stand and keep focus as is, much less turn around and escape. The best she could hope to do was to keep her focus intact for even a sed longer so that the three children could escape this corridor.

  ‘…Nothing has ged. Even then. Even now.’

  Serenis never was a wise lord. Many said it in passing, and ma it. Not once would she disagree with them.

  In her arrogand leisure – blinded by the immediate peace id out before her eyes – Serenis had often made misguided decisions. When she had realized the price of her hesita was far too te.

  - ‘Serenis, we need you…they need you. Please…’

  - ‘To what end? Challehe First? Even if what you said is true, Eden, your cause is doomed. I will not put the dragonkin at stake to challenge a divine being.’

  - ‘We’ll shed blardless. If we aow, we may be able to stop the war from breaking out!’

  - ‘Your assumptions are misguided. Mankind seldom oppose our kin, nor yours. There is no reason for us to throw ourselves into this flict. There is a differeween bravery and recklessness.’

  - ‘…As there is between caution and cowardice. I hope you realize this soon.’

  “…”

  ‘I’m still a coward, Eden. I don’t have the ce to see you again.’

  It’s my fault.

  It’s all my fault.

  If even one of us had survived that day. If I had pced my trust in you just a little sooner. If I hadn’t hesitated when you asked my help.

  ‘If any of you are still alive. Anyone…a all.’

  Serenis closed her eyes. The world around her began to rumble once more. It may have been a fittih for the broken ruler, more so than the end she’d met at the summit.

  She could hear the younglings shouting something in the distance. A smile spread across the dragonlord’s lips as she realized that they were far away from her.

  ‘But, at the very least, we…survived.’

  Back then, only hatgs and children were left at the s with a single elder. The rest of the dragonkin had perished with her at the summit.

  But if her efforts – if their efforts had at least amouo a paltry survival of her kin – then at least for her, perhaps their struggle was well worth it in the end.

  “All of you! Are so! Much! Trouble!!”

  “?! Raizel, what’re you doing?!”

  “’t you see?! I’m saving a life!”

  A metallic object spped Serenis on the back, coiling itself tightly around her waist.

  ‘…?’

  In her flickering vision, the dragonlord could notice her world turning upside down. The corridor resumed its colpse as the falling ice rapidly chased after her, but the distaween them only grew further as she ulled away by the strand of metal.

  Thud!

  Raizel smmed Serenis unto the floor beside her, knog the human boy unscious. She loosened her grip oher end of the metal coil that Serenis had been bound with, groaning in pain as she tightly gripped her arm.

  What was the metal coil? Well…

  “Raizel? Is that…okay?”

  “…I just ripped out strings of bone from my arm, what do you think?!”

  “No, I mean…is Lord Serenis okay? That retty loud thud…”

  “…”

  Raizel colpsed onto the ground. For the first time in a very long while, Raizel’s arm was bleeding profusely. Though it was a self-inflicted wound.

  “What do I care. A couple of broken bones is much better than dying.”

  Praybird