Ep 212. You’re Not From This Time, Are You? (5)
The initial plan had been to simply blow up the whole fortress.
The dragonlord had begun to gather mana, looking to destroy the plummeting fortress with a single cast. Regardless of whether elves were occupying the structure, melting it out of existence would’ve still been a better outcome than letting the structure fall on top of her sibling’s head.
But as she did so, Letherien’s severed head continued its disturbing interruption.
“Oh? Are you sure you want to do that?”
“…What?”
“No one else is on board – instead, I’ve loaded this fortress with nothing but firepowder. As soon as your magic reaches the inside, it’ll all detonate at once – are you sure you can handle that?”
“…”
On the surface, it was a ridiculous notion.
Elves using explosives was already a ridiculous notion. Having enough to fill an entire fortress was even further down that spectrum.
The problem? The person claiming such was the deity of creation. If they truly intended to fill a fortress full of explosives, they could.
And unlike the Reaper who at least seemed to care about his sister, Letherien behaved like she couldn’t care less about her subjects – despite her status as a ruler. Even though the fortress’ explosion would flood the town below in fire, the deity’s severed head refused to do away with its eerie grin.
Grimacing, Serenis bit down on her lips, shooting another glare at the talking head.
“…Stop this madness. What you’re doing is pointless.”
“Oh? Why would I do that?”
“You cannot harm me with mere fire, regardless of its scale. Your subjects will be the only ones to suffer from such an explosion.”
“I appreciate the concern, but that’s alright. They’re all leeches feeding off of their deity – culling a few won’t hurt.”
“…”
“Ahaha, why do you seem surprised? You’re not worried about them, are you? You could just fly away and save yourself.”
It WAS an option.
Another option was to rush down faster than this plummeting bomb to shield herself with Patrick and Iris.
Covering the three of them, at least, was doable. Serenis simply had to stop caring about the rest – whether the surrounding area was swallowed in flames, or whether the elves died or not. They weren’t her kin, and she was by no means obligated to care after them all.
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She could convince herself that it wasn’t her problem – that it had nothing to do with her. That what another ruler did to their subjects, was none of her concern.
If only she did, then…
- ‘Are you sure you won’t regret it?’
“…”
To this day, her daughter’s question was echoing back to haunt her.
She wouldn’t have even contemplated on the matter.
That child had sought to protect even those that shunned her existence. There was no way she would’ve hesitated in her mother’s place.
‘I wonder how different things would’ve been had you inherited my role.’
As the dragonlord briefly closed her eyes, her expression visibly began to soften.
Every second spent pondering on the matter was nothing but wasted time.
You resisted divine rule for others’ sake. And I will do the same.
Not for their sake, but for yours.
? ? ?
With the portal shimmering before her, Iris called out to Patrick with a hurried voice.
“Patrick, get over here already! If that thing falls, we’re all dead!”
“But… Serenis hasn’t…”
“She has wings and she’s not blind, she’ll be fine! Worry about yourself first!”
“Wait, hold on! Isn’t that her?”
“What???”
True to Patrick’s words, a white speck had appeared beneath the falling mass of black.
And soon enough, the speck expanded to a massive white dragon – who then flapped its wings with herculean effort, struggling to break the structure’s fall with brute force.
“…What the hell?”
As Serenis placed herself between the ground and Letherien’s fortress, its plummeting speed immediately began to slow.
Unfortunately, the fall hadn’t stopped completely. Not even a dragon could support the weight of a structure several times its size.
Frowning at the sight, Patrick darted his gaze to Iris, pointing upwards at his sibling above.
“What is she doing? She could just blast the thing away…hey, Iris! Can you change the portal coordinates to-“
“I already changed it! Get over here!”
? ? ?
“SERENIS!!!”
“?!”
As a familiar portal shimmered to existence at the dragonlord’s side, an even more familiar voice exploded out from within.
“…Patrick?”
“You can hear me, right?! What the hell’s going on?! Is that an actual meteor?!”
“…No, it’s one of Letherien’s creations…though there’s nothing but firepowder within.”
“Firepowder? What th…I mean, whatever it is, why’re you trying to stop it with brute force?! Just use magic like you always do!”
“Did you not hear what I said? If I were to use magic, the insides would detonate. The resulting flames would swallow the entire vicinity-“
“Who said anything about making it explode in our face?! Use a barrier spell! You use it all the time!”
“Even I cannot shield every individual within the area, Patrick! Instead of protecting ourselves, I’d much rather stop it from falling altogether-“
“No, don’t put it around PEOPLE, put it around the thing you’re holding! You learned how to use barriers at the institution, didn’t you?!”
“…Ah.”
Normally, barrier spells were used to shield oneself from an attack – but with a little creativity, the spell could be applied to a variety of other situations.
Though admittedly, like most other lectures, Serenis had been asleep throughout the very subject matter.
At least Patrick was here to throw reminders.
Soon enough, Serenis pushed herself off of the plummeting fortress to once again channel manna into a spell – this time not to blast the structure, but to encase it within a shell of mana.
And this time, it was Letherien’s turn to grimace at what was being done from above.
As the fortress became encased in an orb of prismatic light, some let out relieved sighs – while some twitched their eyes in disbelief at the size of the dragonlord’s barrier.
But regardless, Serenis then summoned a spark of flame within the insides of the shelled structure – just moments before it would hit the ground.
Admittedly, compared to the size of the fortress, it was a miniscule flame.
But it was enough to light up the mounds of powder that occupied its insides.
With an explosive rumble, a blinding light began to shine from the cracks forming over the airborne fortress. Parts of it began to fall through the crasks, revealing a stream of white powder seeping out from its insides.
And in a single instant, a mass of fire burst through the structure’s cracks, flooding the sphere with a massive firestorm.