“Clones? What clones? And who are you, anyway?”
Xia Duo asked cautiously, her eyes scanning the stranger with the voluptuous figure.
“What? You only encountered the Frost-Glow Dragon King herself?” Starlight frowned slightly as he recounted their previous battle to Xia Duo.
Xia Duo shook her head firmly. “I'd bet my life on it—there was only one of her! I couldn't exactly interfere in a fight of that level, but I'm not so incompetent that I'd miscount the number of people!”
“We can't help it, but we don't have time to worry about that now. How do we get in? Imira!” Little Gold turned and asked, unable to grasp the reason behind it all.
“I see. Please follow me, everyone.” Imira nodded slightly and walked quickly toward a massive boulder to the side.
To the others, this rock looked no different from any other, covered in the marks of time, except for its exceptionally large size.
Imira reached out and gently traced an inconspicuous crack on the rock with her fingertip.
The next second, the crack suddenly squirmed like a waking snake, gradually expanding into a deep opening large enough for a dragon to pass through.
“How did you do that?! I checked this rock not long ago. How did I miss the entrance?”
Xia Duo was shocked to see the entrance appear out of nowhere. She had been searching for so long, only for it to be right under her nose. Didn't this make her look useless?
“This is a mechanism set by our dragon ancestors. I'm not entirely sure of the exact principles, but I know it's related to bloodline.” Imira stepped aside and made a gesture for them to enter.
Xia Duo didn't hesitate and immediately stepped into the entrance.
What was strange was that Xia Duo's movements suddenly became extremely slow, as if she had stepped into a mass of invisible glue.
After a struggle, Xia Duo finally broke free from that strange pulling sensation and fell into the interior of the cavern.
“Is this a barrier? What a strange feeling...”
Before she could finish, Little Gold charged in headfirst, seemingly unhindered by anything. “What barrier? Are you joking, Xia Duo?”
“??? Little Gold, why are you fine?” Xia Duo was utterly confused by Little Gold's mockery.
When Lian and Wu Hua tried to enter, something even weirder happened. The air in front of them suddenly became as hard as a solid substance.
Lian pushed hard several times, her fair palms turning red from the effort, but she couldn't open even the slightest gap.
Looking at the situation of the two girls, Starlight frowned. It seemed the barrier at the entrance was not as simple as they thought; there was likely some kind of verification mechanism.
But why could Xia Duo, who was also an elf, enter while Lian and the others could not? Could it be because of her Dragon Speaker talent?
“Hmm... there's some real craft here. As expected of the ancient Dragon Race...” You walked to the entrance and pressed his hand against the invisible barrier. After studying it for a moment, he continued, “Step back. I'll break it open.”
“BOOM!!!”
Before You could act, a deafening explosion echoed from high above.
Before anyone could look up, a massive dark green figure crashed down like a meteorite nearby, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
In the rolling dust, Yserazor scrambled to his feet, his dragon body covered in shocking wounds clearly caused by magic.
“You fat idiot!” Little Gold cried out in shock.
Starlight looked up at the sky and saw the grey tornado in the clouds twisting violently. He could vaguely see an elegant blue figure circling within it, gradually descending.
“Cough, cough... Why are you here? Damn it, how did this madwoman suddenly become so much more powerful!”
Yserazor coughed up a large mouthful of blood and roared in a low voice.
Before his voice could fade, the clouds in the sky were slowly pulled back like a stage curtain. An elegant blue figure grew larger and larger amidst the mist until it was fully revealed to everyone.
It was an ice-blue dragon so beautiful it was breath-taking, even from a human perspective.
Her slender body was covered in crystal-clear diamond-shaped scales, each reflecting a dazzling light like the finest blue sapphire.
Under the sunlight, a pair of semi-transparent dragon wings, a hundred meters wide, flapped gently, with water-ripple mana halos flowing across the wing membranes.
Most striking of all was a Seven-Colored Dragon Crystal the size of a small cabin embedded in the dragon's chest, radiating an eerie light.
“Oh my~”
Cantia's voice came from the dragon's mouth, still maintaining that sickly sweet tone that made one uncomfortable.
She elegantly lowered her dragon head and looked at the disheveled Yserazor. “My dear brother, it's not nice to speak ill of your sister behind her back~”
As she spoke, she suddenly turned her head to look at the stunned Starlight and the others. “But what a coincidence... I was just about to look for you... I didn't expect you to deliver yourselves right to me~”
Before the group could recover from the shock of seeing Cantia's original body, the ice-blue dragon suddenly flapped her wings. In an instant, dozens of spells of different elements condensed in the air.
Blazing fireballs, piercing ice spikes, heavy rock spears, and sharp wind blades poured down toward the group at the entrance like a torrential rain.
“Dammit, you crazy woman, what the hell are you doing?! Do you know who they are?!” Yserazor roared. His massive body vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of Starlight and the others.
A silver-glowing ring suddenly appeared above his head. The center of the ring acted like a bottomless pit, swallowing most of the incoming magic and transferring it into the massive pit in the distance.
“BANG! BANG! BANG!”
Successive explosions echoed from the bottom of the pit, shaking the entire ground.
As for the remaining spells, Yserazor spread his wings and used his body, covered in thick dragon scales, to tank them head-on.
Even from dozens of meters away, Starlight could clearly hear the ear-piercing screech of magic striking the dragon scales and the crisp sound of scales shattering.
“Of course I know who they are.” Cantia elegantly folded her wings and tilted her dragon head slightly, revealing a spine-chilling smile. “As for you, my dear brother...”
She slowly raised her two foreclaws, crossing them in front of the Seven-Colored Dragon Crystal on her chest. “Since when did you become so close to outsiders?”
With her movement, the dragon crystal suddenly erupted with a suffocating pressure and mana.
Seven-colored light swirled frantically within the crystal, and the surrounding air began to twist and deform, even swallowing the light itself.
As a mage, Starlight felt as if the blood in his entire body was about to freeze. The Frost-Glow Dragon King's full power was terrifying to such an extent.
“Are you trying to destroy the Dragon Nest?! Stop this at once! We can still talk when Big Brother and the others return!” Yserazor's pupils shrank as he roared into the air.
He could clearly see that this spell would not be so easily transferred. Once it hit the ground, everything within a radius of hundreds of meters could be reduced to nothing.
Cantia swayed her dragon head and let out a nearly joyful chuckle. “My dear brother, surely you aren't naive enough to think... that I still care about any of this?”
By now, the energy in front of her chest had condensed into a dazzling sphere of light. The surrounding air hummed, straining under the distorted energy. “Since you care so much...”
In an instant, the sphere of light expanded several times in size. The blinding radiance forced everyone to close their eyes.
“Then try and block this!”
Seeing that communication was impossible, Yserazor immediately turned back to the group still outside the barrier. “Get inside while I distract her!”
“What about you?!” Starlight stared at the bleeding wounds on his body. “You're not going to—”
“You brat, do you have time to worry about me?” Yserazor bared his teeth in a fierce grin.
“Even though I can't beat this madwoman right now... it won't be that easy for her to kill me!” He turned toward the destructive energy forming in the sky, his limbs digging deep into the ground. “Go! Aidanach is the key!”
Rate on N.U.
