Dragonlord

Ep 13. Pay Your Respects. (8)

Ep 13. Pay Your Respects. (8)

“…Piss off!”

Raizel slammed the last of the clones 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 blazing trail behind her. The red dragon turned back to see her father following right behind, escaping the narrow corridor after her.

“Finally! We made…it?”

Ilias was about to celebrate their escape when she belatedly realized the dragonlord was missing.

“…Lord?”

She threw another gaze towards the corridor. The collapsing 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. When she turned back, she found her father’s unforgiving hold keeping her in place.

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

“You are not going back in 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 collapsing 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 place.

“The collapsing hasn’t stopped. The moment you step back in there, you may end up buried as well.”

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

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“…”

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 stranger they’d just met.

“…Father, let go.”

“No. You’re not going back in there.”

“Father!”

Raizel grimaced, noticing 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 underneath.

In what little space she could manage, Serenis had temporarily erased ‘gravity’ altogether. There was no way she could lift this indestructible 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 mana depletion 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 second longer so that the three children could escape this corridor.

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

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

In her arrogance and leisure – blinded by the immediate peace laid out before her eyes – Serenis had often made misguided decisions. When she had realized the price of her hesitance, it was far too late.

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

- ‘To what end? Challenge the 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 blood regardless. If we act now, 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 conflict. There is a difference between 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 courage 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 placed 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…anyone at all.’

Serenis closed her eyes. The world around her began to rumble once more. It may have been a fitting death 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 hatchlings and children were left at the nests 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 amounted to 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?!”

“Can’t you see?! I’m saving a life!”

A metallic object slapped 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 collapse as the falling ice rapidly chased after her, but the distance between them only grew further as she was pulled away by the strand of metal.

Thud!

Raizel slammed Serenis unto the floor beside her, knocking the human boy unconscious. She loosened her grip on the other 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 was a pretty loud thud…”

“…”

Raizel collapsed 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.”