Ep 101. Ludin. (4)

  Raizel bnkly thought to herself, sing her surroundings once more. Her father was still firmly standing before her, proteg the court mage behind him; her mother roag closer and closer, readying to attack.

  ‘I know. I’m not stupid.’

  Her parents were long dead. What she was seeing weren’t her parents who’d returo life, but their dead bodies being maniputed by a human mage.

  They weren’t failing their daughter. It was just impossible to begin with.

  And whe spark of hope withered away, it only took a moment for the youngling’s longing to turn to menace.

  “…e to think of it, we never fought, did we?”

  After gripping and loosening her fists several times, Raizel left behind her heavy heart, f out a smile instead. She’d eained herself on numerous occasions through pig fights with other dragons; there was no reason to think this was any different.

  If anything, it was easier. These two weren’t anything like their old selves.

  ‘This is nothing new. Nothing new…’

  When her mother’s cws came rushing from behind, Raizel swiftly tilted her head to dodge the strike. The youngling’s fist shot upwards to bury itself in Ludin’s face, and she immediately took a step forward to kick at her father’s jaw after, sending them both flying off to the side.

  After both specters were blown across the courtyard, Raizel threw a deathly gre towards Sis.

  “Just you wait. You’re right after these two.”

  “…”

  Sis blinked in a burst of fusion and fear, watg the youngling walk away from him and towards her parents.

  ‘…Was she not far weaker mere moments ago? Not even a dozen soldiers could make the guardians budge…’

  Of course, the battle wasn’t quite over; the dead were already ba their feet, ready to strike at the neancer’s oppo. As long as their bodies and their summoner’s mana held, they would op.

  The problem was, even Sis struggled to maintain trol over the two dead dragons for very long. In exge for being exceptionally strong pared tur specters, maintaining trol over the two steel dragons was burdensome even for the empire’s court mage.

  And to make matters worse, Raizel was no looying around as she had against the soldiers. She, too, khat destroying their bodies and ending their misery was all she could do.

  Boom!

  The two lunging specters were grabbed by their heads and nontly thrown into the courtyard’s walls once again. As creeping terran to overtake the court mage’s mind, he rapidly sed his surroundings, searg for an avaible exit.

  ‘This isn’t a matter that will settle itself in mere seds. I o…’

  “I told you to wait.”

  In respoo the ominous voice eg in his ears, Sis’ body froze in fear, his posure beginning to crumble away. Wheurned his head, he could see Raizel sloroag him from afar with a bored expression, as if the two corpses were of no threat to her whatsoever.

  “…This is impossible. Even if you’re a dragon yourself, it’s two against one. How could-!”

  “Seriously? Numbers? That’s what you were ting on? What a fug idiot.”

  As Raizel responded, a gust of air blew across the courtyard; both specters had emerged from the rubble once more to protect their summoner and elimihe threat at hand.

  A mother falling down towards her daughter’s head, cws poised to tear it off; a father lunging from behind his daughter, aiming to pierce through her heart.

  Both were quick, and remarkably strong. Had a regur dragon been in Raizel’s pce, even in their proper forms, they would undoubtedly have struggled to fend off the two specters. Pierg their defense alone was a daunting task for many.

  But Raizel wasly a ‘regur’ dragon.

  For decades, Raizel had been the dragonkin’s biggest problem child, often g against her friend for the title of being the stro dragon alive. Despite her vulnerability to elements like fire, there was no dispute to Raizel’s physical capabilities being far above her other kin.

  In parison, her oppos were a pair of old, dead dragons locked in their reduced forms, robbed of their magid experieruggling against them was unimaginable for the youngling; as long as she was willing to swallow down her hesita, the entire fight was nothing to make a big deal out of.

  ‘…Laugh it off. This isn’t a big deal.’

  Every time she’d strike at her parents, Raizel could feel something snapping inside her own head. She may as well have been hitting her own self.

  But if she stopped here, then no one else would ever e to release her parents from this absurd fate. The kin’s elders certainly wouldn’t risk it; Raizel had never uood it herself, but they were all deathly afraid of the empire for some reason, even though they’d ell her why.

  So, if no one else would, she would. And no one could tell her to live otherwise.

  g!

  After stepping to the side, Raizel grabbed Ludin by the throat, using them as a shield to block her father’s lunge. Aep forward khe male dragon off bance, and the youngling was quick to stomp down on his chest.

  Holding one by the throat, another beh her feet, Raizel finally let go of the breath she’d been holding. She could feel the specters’ cws digging into the arm ahat held them, but she couldn’t care less about physical pain.

  “You know…I barely think of you two now.”

  pared to the life she’d led quarreling with others at the , ret events were nowhere near as hecti fact, the st few months had been the most docile period of Raizel’s life: she’d listeo others, worried for others. She’d even cried on occasion.

  It wasn’t that anyone had told her to live this way. Even though she could’ve returo the valley at any point, she’d chosen otherwise of her own accord.

  Here, she’d found someone illing to show kindness; kindness not of fear or sympathy, but of pure affe.

  And in a hopeful wish to lessen their misery and longing, Raizel had apahem all the way here.

  “So go away already. I never want to see either of you again. I…”

  Raizel tightehe grip on her mother’s throat, pressed down the foot buried in her father’s chest. Her own cws dug into their metallic skin, and the specter’s chest beh her began to crook and break from the weight bearing down on it.

  “I don’t need you two anymore.”

  A cherished memory.

  That was enough.

  With a violent screech, her cws tore away her mother’s throat, severing head and body; her father’s chest became demolished underfoot, wreg the grouh. The headless dragon refused to move after colpsing unto the ground, and her husband’s body was crippled beyond funing.

  The bodies soon y motionless, crippled aied of their supply of mana.

  “…”

  After a long sigh, Raizel quietly rubbed at her eyes. Even though the specters hadn’t shed a single drop of blood, she somehow felt filthier than she ever had before; even though her wounds were barely anything of he enter had hurt her more than any other.

  Wheeel dragourned her gaze to the manaless court mage afterwards, his body froze in the middle of removing the rubble c a courtyard exit.

  A wide grin spread across Raizel’s face.

  “Don’t know how to run away, do you?”

  “…Bloody hells.”

  ‘If I khis would happen, I would’ve left the pace through his portal too…’

  It was too te frets. Teleportation was useless with the surrounding rubbles limiting his vision, and Sis didn’t possess suffit mana to escape in the first pce.

  After approag the ered mage, Raizel grabbed him by his hair and forced the mage up to their feet, whispering in an ominous voice.

  “Now…hoieces should I rip you into?”

  “W, wait! If you let me go, I’ll tell you the emperor’s location!”

  “Emperor?...”

  After a moment of disied staring, Raizel burst into ughter.

  “Hahaha! Seriously? That’s the best you have?”

  “Anything!...Anything you’d like. I offer you anything you’d want from the empire. Anything at all.”

  “…”

  With her free hand, the youngling softly held Sis’ right thumb. But she then proceeded to twist it off, breaking its bones and ripping the flesh.

  After shoving the torn finger into the mage’s mouth, she gred into their eyes, hissing out her response.

  “I already told you what I want.”

  “…hat did…”

  “Hoieces should I rip you into?”

  “…One?”

  A demeaning snort escaped Raizel, twisting her lips into an evil grin.

  “Wrong answer.”