"Go back? For what?"
Leodero briefly explained his and Vivian's experience to Izo.
"The exact same dream? Eaten?"
Hearing this, Izo's mind was also tossed into confusion. Having lacked a Dragon Inheritance since he was young, he naturally wasn't very clear on what could have caused this.
The Abyss, strange dreams—all of these signaled that the environment he relied on for survival was becoming unsafe.
After pondering for a moment, Izo answered decisively, "I'm going with you."
Waiting passively for death wasn't his style. Naturally, he also carefully weighed the danger level of going with his current strength.
Izo didn't feel that big mother dragon could pose any lethal threat to him; even if he really couldn't beat her, he could still manage to escape.
Besides, she had been his wet nurse after all. Izo was merely going to observe the situation, not to invade her territory. It wouldn't necessarily come to blows the moment they met.
The two dragons then walked toward the cave entrance.
"Eva, we're making a trip to the Everfrost Great Rift."
"Okay, dragon."
Eva didn't ask the dragon why he was going there, nor did she ask when he would return.
Because in the world of Snowrot Birds, everything was simple: if the dragon needed her, he would come find her. If the dragon left, he would definitely return.
Likewise, Izo had no intention of taking the flock of Snowrot Birds with them.
First, the flock's total number was far too massive, which was unfavorable for staying hidden.
Second, they were heading to the bottom of the rift, which was far too narrow compared to the sky; the flock wouldn't be able to maneuver at all.
"Vivian, you're coming with us too."
"Huh? No way!"
"If you two want to go throw your lives away, do it yourselves! Don't drag me along."
That big mother dragon's lair was in the Everfrost Great Rift. Even if Izo didn't say it, Vivian could guess what they wanted to do with her rear end.
"You have to come this time."
"Whether we decide to leave the Northern Territory in the future or continue developing here depends on this operation."
"If we just sit by and wait for death, ignoring everything, it'll be extremely disadvantageous."
"We can just run away right now. Why take the risk to go take a look?"
"God knows what's going on with that big mother dragon now. Her state was already off when she kicked us out."
Hearing this, Izo let out a heavy sigh.
"Sigh... how do you know you'll definitely be able to avoid it?"
Vivian froze completely.
In a dragon's life, there indeed existed these destined calamities that must be overcome before one could smoothly grow into the next stage; the Dragon Inheritance contained similar records.
No dragon knew why they had to experience this in their lifetime. Legend had it that Tiamat, the Queen of Evil Dragons, had cursed all dragonkind after being betrayed by her offspring and falling into Hell.
Other scholars believed that the world itself was jealous of dragonkind's talent and thus imposed this shackle upon them.
The fated tribulations of the wyrmling stage were usually overcome with the help of their parents or clan; otherwise, it was actually very difficult for wyrmlings to survive their juvenile stage.
However, Izo and his siblings had no clan or parents to rely on.
"I get it... Let's go."
Vivian was merely stubborn, not stupid. After pondering for a moment, she still decided to head to the Everfrost Great Rift together with Izo.
The three dragons took to the sky simultaneously, flying toward the farther north.
Three days later, they finally caught sight of a streak of black amidst the endless white icefield.
Viewed from high above, the great rift below looked like a massive scar, stretching all the way from one end of the horizon to the other, its length unknown.
It lay sprawled across the land of the Northern Territory, and no one knew how it had come into being.
Three black dots gradually grew larger.
Izo, Leodero, and Vivian landed at the edge of the Everfrost Great Rift.
Vivian poked her head out and looked down. Below hung giant icicles, with countless massive ice pillars traversing the entire rift, as if countless giant white hands were gripping both sides of the rift to keep it from cracking open any further.
Returning to his former home, Izo couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
"This lousy place looks just as hopeless to dragons as it did a year ago..."
"Don't be picky. At least at the bottom of this rift, you could actually eat your fill."
"Unlike this lousy icefield, where there isn't even a decent piece of prey."
"We weren't eating our fill back then either..."
Hearing Vivian's words, Leodero couldn't help but retort from the side.
Vivian rolled her eyes silently and was the first to spread her wings and dive down.
Izo followed closely behind.
"Huh? Hey, wait for me!"
Leodero, sticking out his bloated belly, hurriedly gave chase. After several days, the Silver Crystal inside his stomach still hadn't been excreted, though under his "refining and purification," it had shrunk a little.
The farther down they went, the dimmer the light inside the rift became, while never-ending wild winds shrieked with bits of shattered ice.
One couldn't tell at all whether that was the cry of Frostbats or the wind sweeping past nearby.
Frostbats were one of the most common creatures in the Everfrost Great Rift. They were large, grayish-white bats that, like the Snowrot Birds, lived in colonies, usually inhabiting caves deep at the bottom of the rift.
Occasionally, they would fly up to the Howling Wind Layer of the rift to prey on Chrysalis Iceworms attached to the ice walls.
Large swarms of Frostbats kept flying out from the deeper caves for reasons unknown.
This worked to the advantage of Izo's group of dragons; they killed one after another as if eating at a buffet.
Pfft! Pfft!
For the first time, Vivian found the sound of flesh tearing to be so pleasant to the ear. Traveling over the past few days had left her starving.
Izo was also wolfing down another Frostbat corpse nearby; inside his large maw, it vanished in just three bites. Fortunately, the bodies piled up around them were enough for them to feast to their hearts' content.
Only Leodero seemed to lack much of an appetite.
"Why aren't you eating, Leodero?"
"Coming across such a huge swarm of Frostbats isn't common at all~"
Seeing Vivian poking him right where it hurt, Leodero instantly burst with rage!
"****!!"
He hurriedly scrambled to his feet and lunged toward Vivian.
Vivian agilely dodged out of the way, not forgetting to continue mocking him:
"Ahahaha, you need to lose weight, Leodero~"
"Just you wait, Vivian! Don't let me catch you!!"
Out of breath, Leodero collapsed onto the ground first; after all, sticking out his bloated belly, there was no way he could catch up with Vivian.
Over the boring past few days, Vivian had found a new form of entertainment: provoking Leodero first, then letting him chase after her.
Just like how children sometimes deliberately acted up and then ran away.
The key was that Leodero took the bait every single time, which made Vivian's tricks work without fail.
Looking at Leodero's defeated expression, she always felt the sweet satisfaction of revenge.
Who told Leodero to pick on her all the time back in the dragon nest?
"Alright, stop playing around."
"Now that we're full, we should get going."
"We're almost there up ahead."
"Leodero, crawl slowly if you want, but nobody's going to wait for you~"
After finishing her sentence, Vivian immediately caught up with Izo, who was walking ahead.
"I don't need you guys to wait for me anyway!"
Wuuu—!
Wails and howls echoed from not far away, making it impossible for the dragons to tell whether it was the wind blowing above the rift or some monster roaring.
Rate on N.U.
