Dragonlord

Ep 210. You’re Not From This Time, Are You? (3)

Ep 210. You’re Not From This Time, Are You? (3)

The original plan was to take back the bracelet and leave as soon as possible. And so far, the “take-back” part had been successful.

The “leave as soon as possible” part, not so much.

“Wait, you’re really planning to spend the day here?”

“To be precise, I’m planning to make you and Iris spend the day here.”

After recollecting herself from the unexpectedly accurate reading, Serenis had briskly thanked the elf before making her way back to the carriage with Patrick.

But instead of leaving right away, she practically shoved Patrick into the cart beside the sleeping enforcer, turning to take off on her own right after.

“Wait, where’re you going?”

“Not far, I’d assume. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Did the reading shake you that badly? Astrology’s all just made-up stuff. You know that, right?”

“…It’s not that. You needn’t worry.”

Without offering any further explanation, the dragonlord took off into the air, leaving behind a blast of harsh winds. Patrick’s frowning gaze remained fixed on his flying sibling, who seemed to have all but forgotten about laying low and not flying around.

‘…What’s wrong with her now?’

✧   ✧   ✧

Admittedly, the reading had been scarily accurate. But as with all such readings, the meanings were vague, and generally applicable to most – as both Patrick and the reader herself had said, it wasn’t something that one should take to heart.

But what had rattled Serenis wasn’t the reading alone.

‘…It wasn’t the bracelet.’

For a while, she’d faintly sensed a divinity fragment moving about nearby – which she’d thought to be Patrick’s missing accessory. But even with the item returned throughout her reading, the divinity that irked the dragonlord’s senses refused to fade.

She’d rushed out as soon as she could to determine its source. She’d then considered it to be Iris, and a potentially remaining piece of her destroyed divinity.

But when even that proved to be false, a grim realization began to dawn upon her.

‘The faintness isn’t due to its size. It’s simply due to distance.’

Fixing her gaze upward, the dragonlord had taken flight straight toward the clouds.

For a few minutes, her wings slashed through nothing but open air – the sky was as open as it ever was. Not even the smallest of irregularity was in sight.

Unfortunately, her other senses were screaming otherwise.

When Serenis reached sufficient altitude, her narrowed gaze darted from corner to corner, scanning her surroundings for the source of the irregularity irking her. And upon determining the precise location of its source, she drew back one arm, gathering a sphere of condensed mana into her palm.

When the ray of magic was released at an altitude slightly beneath her, Serenis’ spell was almost immediately stopped by a crackling surface – a camouflage that soon revealed itself from suffering the spell’s impact.

And beyond the translucent surface of sparks and waves, Serenis’ eyes finally made out the enormous surface of black, floating above the carpet of clouds.

It wasn’t as massive as Senon, but the particular structure was far more intimidating: while Senon had seemed more like a cluster of towers and buildings tightly packed into an airborne town, this one was clearly a ‘fortress,’ with its ring of towers and countless weaponry stationed at its outer walls. Every inch of its surface was covered in giant barbs, its only openings being occupied with cannons or spearheads.

But most notably, its occupants were different.

Or at least, one occupant was different.

“Oh my. Hello there.”

“…”

Strangely enough, the only portion of the structure that didn’t seem oriented for war was its uppermost level: a small portion of it was covered by a plain of grass instead of iron barbs. A lovely tea table was even set towards its edge, one of its two seats occupied by a grinning elf.

Though, given her ghastly white appearance, the elf’s grin seemed neither very welcoming nor warm.

Every surface of their body was bleak in color – hair, skin, even the dress stretching down to her feet. While it could be perceived as beautiful to some, with so much white over one another, it was akin to looking at a living phantom.

But as if to prove that she was real, the elf stretched her hand towards the dragonlord in the sky, inviting them to come closer.

“Would you care to join me? I was starting to miss having company.”

“…Letherien.”

“…”

The elf’s grin quickly deteriorated. An unamused gaze was now fixed on the dragon above her as she placed down her cup of tea, standing to look at Serenis in the eye.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been addressed by name. You must be the threat Zalde was talking about. Although…”

The deity’s cold gaze then scanned Serenis from head to toe. But no matter how much she looked, her confusion only grew more evident.

“Who are you? You’re not Felicis…and you even seem to be an elf in appearance. And yet, your wings seem rather realistic.”

“…I’m-“

Before the dragonlord could let out another word, Letherien slashed at the air with a wicked grin – and in response, an enormous, barbed stone formed above the dragonlord’s figure, crashing down to impale its target whole.

In the wreckage of stone that followed, Letherien’s grin softened back to a thin smile as shattered pebbles began to fall out of the burst of dust.

But instead of a haphazard mess of flesh and bone, the deity saw a layer of folded wings that remained seemingly unharmed – and a glowing blue eye that was hidden behind them, glaring at Letherien’s eyes.

“So those wings are genuine! I’m pleased to see that. It’s not something you see very often on us.”

“…”

“Still, I’m a little disappointed that you’re not my adorable little Magician. And I was looking so forward to seeing her again. Disappointing me in Karia is a terrible sin, my dear intruder.”

Grimacing, the dragonlord then began to gather a massive amount of mana above her form. She’d heard more than enough to conclude that conversing with this deity was not a viable option.

And once again, Letherien’s grin grew visibly wider into a crooked smile as she watched the orb of starlight grow in size.

“Is that magic? That’s quite impressive for a defect. Maybe you aren’t too far a step down from Felicis after all.”

“…I am a dragon.”

With that, the massive prismatic orb begun its descent towards the deity’s skyward garden – right towards the very spot she stood. The spell was meant to destroy the deity whole, alongside her aerial garden.

“Does that matter?”

Snap!

Accompanying a clear snap of her fingers, layers of bright, glimmering yellow stone snapped into existence before the deity of creation.

As the massive spell made contact, the stone surfaces immediately turned blue before shattering apart. But shattered layers were immediately replaced with two more, gradually eroding away the strength of Serenis’ spell.

In mere seconds, a small dust cloud of millions of blue particles danced about Letherien’s figure, having shattered after absorbing their capacity of mana.

“My, not even breaking a sweat? Your mana’s even more impressive than I imagined. But the spell was simple, crude…not very sophisticated at all.”

“…You speak as if your response was any more sophisticated.”

Serenis glared at the dancing kirium fragments with narrowed eyes. She’d imagined Letherien to answer the spell one way or another, but nullifying it with raw materials was not exactly the response she’d imagined.

And to that, Letherien only let out a snickering laughter.

“A crude question deserves no more than an equally crude answer. Oh, how I’d love to lecture you for decades like I did with Felicis…”

The deity then made a small ring-like gesture with one of her hands – and, following her gesture, the surrounding cannons and spearheads from towers and fortress walls immediately took aim at the dragon in the air.

“But that’s not what you came here for, is it? No, you hindered my dear soldiers and exposed yourself to me on purpose…you even came searching for me. You’re here for something very specific – just like me, you’re desperate to rekindle the joys you so fondly remember.”

With one final flick of her finger, an enormous cannon snapped to existence at the deity’s side, its massive head aimed towards the dragon before her.

“Smile, dear. Were you not looking forward to this as much as I was?”

“…I see why you were described as a warmonger now. Reaper aside, even the griffins were not this bad…you’re no different from a behemoth.”

“…Excuse me?”

For the first time, Letherien was doubting what she’d just heard – and for the first time, she was actually interested in what the other person had to say.

Unfortunately, the dragonlord had no intention of explaining herself.

As Serenis closed her eyes, her reduced form once again became covered in a coat of prismatic light. The dragonlord’s figure then rapidly shifted, expanding in size to massive degrees.

“If you think me to be no different from yourself…”

Despite belonging to the same individual, Serenis’ tone was now noticeably different: the dragon’s displeased was now shaking Letherien to the core. While the deity’s lips curved into a wicked grin again, her entire fortress seemed to rumble before the dragonlord.

The restriction on Serenis’ transfiguration had been in consideration of avoiding attention – lest they come into conflict against the innocent again like they had at Senon.

Coming to conflict against a divinity had never been a part of the equation.

“…Then I shall answer in kind.”