Ep 126. Do You Think Yourself Invincible? (4)

  Light waded through the darkness with her torch, illuminating what little there was to see within the keep’s basement. After her unsuccessful search of finding anything useful upstairs, she’d been quiake her way down.

  But despite the copious amounts of cobwebs, occasional equipment, and expeals, the basement seemed devoid of anything suitable for treating the wounded.

  ‘Is there nothing useful here? e on…!’

  Rapid footsteps echoed throughout the stretg hallways as Light hurried through the dark corridors. The majority led to dead ends, or chambers filled with crates that tained nothing but gold and silver.

  ‘Nope, not here…not this oher…why do they keep nothing but metal in here?!’

  As Light internally pined about the massive amount of treasure bei within Telberk, she finally came across a peculiar wooden door.

  It was clearly unremarkable pared to the other chambers’ entrahere weren’t aal carvings or locks upon the small entrance – which was odd, given the grandiose structure of all the other doors she’d seen.

  And most notable of all was the sound of someone’s voiing from within.

  Light’s ears twitched as she tried to make out the noise. But even as the half girl listened, all she could hear were i groans.

  ‘…What is that?’

  Gulping, Light quickly retraced a few steps to grab a long, rusted pike from the rows of unused ons. She then carefully poked at the door from afar with the on’s rear end, opening the door with an eerie creak.

  Thankfully, no traps were sprung, and no rabid beast jumped out to feast oruder. The groaning sound grew clearer, but nothing happeherwise.

  Pressing down her fears, Light slowly peeked into the open chamber. But what she saw within wasn’t anything she’d expected to see.

  Or wao see, for that matter.

  ? ? ?

  g!

  “…”

  When Hathelon swung down his axe, his on did indeed crash into something with a loud g sound. sidering that his target was a dragon of steel, the noise may have even been natural.

  But uzzled him was that his divinity-coated on was failing to crush through the dragon’s scales. It was fixed in pce, as if the strike had been blocked pletely.

  When the deity narrowed his gaze, he betedly realized that the massive surface of scales before him was white, not grey.

  “Wh-”

  Even as he pushed against the blog surface, his on refused to budge.

  And when the scaled surface stirred, his axe was effortlessly thrown into the air – along with its holder.

  In his fall, Hathelon’s eyes beheld the blog figure in full.

  “You…?”

  “…”

  A massive white dragon stood between the deity and Raizel, c the steel dragon in a gentle embrace. What Hathelon’s on had struck was not the youngling, but the white dragon’s back.

  After letting go of the youngling in her embrace, the massive dragon quietly pced the unscious steel dragon onto the ground.

  She then turo face Hathelon in full, gring into their tiny figure. A pair of sapphire eyes seemed to pierce through the hero as he nded some distance away.

  “That ’t be. You weren’t even a proper dragonkin…!”

  “…”

  Hathelon’s expression torted at the dragonlord’s silence. He soon summoned back his ring of ons, plug out a hazel sword in each hand.

  “…This ges nothing. You may have grown in form, but you ot defy his great will.”

  Instead of a reply, Serenis’ eyes studied the armored figure.

  Despite Raizel’s efforts, small dents and scratches were all she’d left upon the deity’s otherwise intact armor. And even in her fully regained form, there was no guarahat Serenis would be able to test a blessed hero who wielded an infinite array of ons – and a demonlord’s shell.

  ‘…Kedor.’

  Not once had the colossal tortoise came at Serenis with his full strength. They were allies more often than not, and even if they did happen on a disagreement, Kedor would always yield to the dragonlord.

  And while Serenis was quick to attribute such occurreo the goodness of his heart, the velklord had always begged to differ.

  - ‘You know, Serenis…if you actually tried, you could kill me pretty easily.’

  - ‘I could not. If you were to fully armor yourself in your shell, then no magiine could ever harm you.’

  - ‘Bah, you and yic. You know what? Sometimes, I think you’d be better off without your star affinity. You’re so used to bsting through everything that you hardly think anymore.’

  - ‘…That’s quite the long way to phrase an insult.’

  - ‘No, I’m serious! Be creative for once! You don’t HAVE to pierce through my shell, you know?’

  A soft smile curved the dragonlord’s lips as her friend’s voice echoed in her mind.

  She’d smiled back, just like now. She’d never realized what her friend was saying at the time.

  But when Serenis beheld the armored hero before her, her smile instantly melted away.

  “…Do you think yourself invincible?”

  Even Kedor had never sidered himself invincible. And pared to the velklord, her enemy was much, much smaller – insignifit beyond words in parison.

  And that insignifit figure brandished his two swords, ung himself straight towards his t enemy. Both his bdes shimmered in divine light, readying to hack through the dragonlord’s scales.

  “FALL!”

  “…”

  Giant cws raked the air, defleg Hathelon’s dang bdes. The deity furiously hacked away at the talons barring his way, eager to reach the flesh beyond.

  Serenis watched with an unamused gaze, tinuing to deflect the deity’s strikes.

  ‘…If Kedor was here…’

  With his colossal size, the velklord would’ve crushed her underfoot iomp, cws and scales and all. pared to that, the hero’s attacks were ughable at best.

  The dragonlord’s forearm collided with Hathelon’s bdes, log one another in pce.

  The deity forced his on with all his might, struggling to push his ons through the scaled arm that blocked them. The radiance shrouding his bdes tio intensify as he poured more of his divinity into them.

  But before the ons would hack through the dragonlord’s scales, Serenis fixed her gaze upward – towards the glowing, cloudless skies.

  ‘…Perhaps you were right after all.’

  Several events occurred in the seds that followed.

  In a momentary blink, Hathelon pnted his foot onto the scaled forearm and discarded his swords, repg them with a loo pierce through dragonlord’s scales.

  But at the same time, darkened skies suddenly enveloped every er of his world; a chilling cold settled in alongside an ag pain that spread throughout his body, slowing his movements siderably.

  Serenis pushed the deity away with time to spare. Hathelon’s spear sloointlessly stabbed iy space, its target much too far to reach.

  And when he would attempt to leap forward to close their distance again, he would finally notice the ck of footing – and air.

  ‘?! What in the world…?!’

  Even as the chokiy darted his gaze, the dragonlord’s figure was shrinking smaller and smaller. The gap betweeeadily widen, seemingly without end.

  But try as he might to approach her again, Hathelon’s limbs pointlessly filed in the emptiness, devoid of anything to stand or push off of. There was nothing but void within his reach.

  ‘Where…what is this pce?!’

  As Hathelon sed their surroundings in a rush, he realized that they weren’t in plete darkness. Shimmering stars and distant orbs were scattered about the endless expanse of bck, moving about in their destined orbits.

  And finally, far beh his feet, the deity took notice of a brilliant blue star.

  The very world he’d served fes gleamed in its vibrant radiance, far beh his feet.

  “…!”

  Even as the deity’s expression torted in his creeping realization, Serenis kept her mouth firmly shut. She merely waved farewell towards the hero that tio distance away from her.

  A desperate, soundless howl escaped the First’s champion. An enormous bde of light formed into being within his grasp, swinging down in a final attempt to cut down its foe.

  But before the bde would reach her, the dragonlord disappeared from sight.

  ? ? ?

  A wave of nausea settled in as Serenis reappeared at an altitude with breathable air.

  Truthfully, she had little idea just how far she’d teleported upwards with her assaint. All she knew was that the altitude they’d reached was far above a she’d previously flown in – and far beyond the scope of what one could call sane.

  ‘I shouldn’t…do that again….’

  Drawing raspy breaths, Serenis’ regained wings gradually guided her back down to solid ground. As exhaustion began to settle in, her form soon reduced itself back to its usual size.

  And, try as she might, her throbbing headache was growing impossible to ignore.

  ‘…I still…have to…’

  Struggling to remain scious, Serenis turo face the steel dragon.

  Even though she’d protected the youngling from a fatal strike, Raizel’s body was still in a horrible state. Hathelon’s light had blown through the steel dragon’s scales in tless areas, leaving rge gaps on the body that endlessly leaked in blood.

  Serenis dragged her feet, practically stumbling forward as she made her way to the unscious youngling. She held her pounding head and cursed her ag heart, wishing for the inexplicable pains to simply wash away.

  But as it were, her exhausted mind was struggling to keep itself intact.

  “…Rai…zel…”

  A thousand visions fshed before Serenis’ eyes. Each piled upon one ao form a haphazard world around her, and the sounds that apahem miogether into a cacophony of discordant noises, drowning out the reality that surrounded her.

  Gradually, the dragonlord’s senses began to drown in a flood of memories. The world itself seemed to deteriorate as Serenis struggled to dis her visions from reality.

  And soon, it would all fade to bck.

  ? ? ?

  Somewhere in the distance, Felicir watched the stumbling dragonlord with crossed arms, grinning at the sight. Soundless ughter escaped his translut form as she fell forward onto the heaving steel dragon.

  ‘Pft, of course. Not even you could possibly be alright after that. Even Aymeia needed years to adjust.’

  Truthfully, the Reaper didly have fond feelings for either of the twons. In fact, he was gd that mankind’s champion had at least mao take down one of the two – though he might’ve preferred both over one.

  But still, he erfectly tent to watch the dragonlord in tears, colpsing unscious before the dying youngling. The etle had been nothing but a show for the wandering spirit, and its ending was turning out to be just as eaining.

  ‘Though…then again, our local monster wouldn’t be too happy about my ck of reports. I suppose I could at least tell him what’s going on here…’

  But just as Felicir turned away to return to Karas, a peculiar sight caught his attention.

  The Reaper froze midair, his eyes glued to the dragonlord’s stirring figure. He watched on as yet another event unfolded, far beyond his own uanding.

  ‘What…the hell…?’

  Praybird