Khaedryss' footsteps echoed heavily, her claws tearing into the ground reddened by the hellish temperature that surrounded her, causing the air around her to bubble.
Behind her, she could sense the auras of Qingyi, Elize, and Seraphine. Through her subtle connection with her rider, she could also sense his injuries.
It had not been an easy battle for either of them.
With a low growl, Khaedryss continued to move her injured body. Her wounds slowly closed, and her burning blood ceased to bathe her black scales in red.
On the horizon, she could already sll a sweet scent, an aroma she had not slled in tens of thousands of years.
It was the scent of a respected and ancient opponent of Khaedryss, or at least, of her heart.
Karlan.
Her heart was massive, easily the size of an elephant and weighing over four tons.
It lay on a huge stone platform, and even though she had been dead for tens of thousands of years, the organ still beat.
It still pumped blood through invisible lines, its mana richer than anything Khaedryss had ever felt in her life.
It was as if Karlan's heart had just been removed from her body.
Khaedryss stopped in front of the heart and turned her face slightly, watching Qingyi approach.
"Are you okay, girl?" he asked, stroking the hard scales on the dragon's neck.
The energy of the Seed of Life, which he had received from the
matriarch of the fox people, had already begun to work its way through his body, healing him of all his wounds.
Khaedryss just looked back at the heart, her jaw opening and her sharp teeth sinking into Karlan's organ.
She lifted it into the air, blood streaming like waterfalls down her powerful black scales.
With a smooth movent, she opened her mouth before closing it, swallowing the entire heart.
Her mana was already boiling from absorbing the power of the Red Death's heart, but nothing compared to what she felt next.
She took a step back, her jaw opening in a guttural roar as her body burned with flas, radiating heat capable of hurting even a dragon.
Beside her, Qingyi retreated, forming a barrier of Qi around himself and his wives, pulling them into his protective embrace.
"Ugh... what's going on?" Elize asked, turning her eyes to her sister, who had frozen, unable to speak.
Qingyi just gritted his teeth. T
he stones beneath his feet were being torn away, everything around Khaedryss being sent flying in a powerful explosion of mana.
Her enormous body floated in the air, an orb of black flas over five hundred ters in circumference surrounding her.
Her scales began to change, slowly cracking. A golden cocoon began to engulf her body as she shrank smaller and smaller.
Qingyi, with his draconic eyes active, could only watch, struggling to prevent the violent energy from shattering everyone there.
"She's losing..." Seraphine whispered beside Qingyi, turning her face toward the exit of that place before looking into her husband's eyes.
"We need to leave as soon as her energy calms down. Grandpa will be here soon."
Qingyi just nodded silently.
He was exhausted, and even if he wasn't, he would still have no
chance against an expert like Lucios.
Slowly, he felt the energy leaking from Khaedryss calm down, the sea
of flas surrounding her ceasing.
When everything finally stopped, Khaedryss was nowhere to be
found.
Where she should have been, there was only a huge, pulsating golden energy cocoon, surrounded by powerful black veins.
Qingyi didn't think or hesitate, sending the golden cocoon and the girls to the Mind World.
Imdiately, he relaxed, starting to run toward the exit.
The portal through which they had entered was about to open again.
***
Outside, many watched the stone gates anxiously.
The Patriarch's guards looked ready to start throwing their swords at anything that appeared in front of them, while the many great Lords argued about what to do next.
Enemies or friends of the Patriarch, no one was happy or calm about
it.
No one except Lucios, of course.
The old man was relaxed, drinking as usual.
His huge bronze dragon had landed beside him, also watching the
portal.
He was the father of RedDeath and a direct descendant of the first line of dragons, the sa lineage as Khaedryss.
Dragons were not usually very attached to their offspring, but in the end, they were beings of intelligence often superior to that of
humans.
Suddenly, the tranquility on Lucios' face disappeared and he raised his eyes.
The stone gate shook violently, a deep tremor spreading across the ground beneath his feet.
He stood up and, with a smooth movent, took a step forward.
In the blink of an eye, he was in front of the guards, waiting for the
gate to open.
When the intense light finally hit his face and he stepped forward, he
felt a slight distortion in the space around him.
A familiar presence appeared for a single mont before disappearing, reappearing kiloters away, and then fading away
completely.
Lucios turned his face sharply, staring at the horizon for a brief
second before sighing, walking toward the portal and entering it.
It took him only a mont to realize how devastating the battle there
had been.
The bodies of the priests were torn in half, and the temperature of
the entire place was so high that any mortal would be cooked alive in a matter of seconds.
He continued walking, feeling the temperature rise even higher, rivers
of magma surrounding the partially devoured corpse of Red Death.
His eyes scanned everything, noticing the absence of Karlan's heart before finally falling on the decapitated corpse of his son.
"Ah..." Lucios exhaled heavily.
"I failed you, just as you failed our-" Lucios stopped himself from continuing, correcting himself imdiately. "My Seraphine...
"I don't bla her for wanting revenge, nor her man for taking it. You deserved it." Lucios opened a small bottle of alcohol, pouring it over
his son's feet.
He turned to the Patriarch's guards.
"We will hold a vote to decide the next Patriarch soon. For now, the entire Grand Duchy of Vaeldrinn will remain sealed."
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