Chapter 37: Wanting to See You Again

The golden pupils reflected the silhouette of the young woman before her farewell.

A faint, serene smile, carrying the helplessness of parting and the relief of death.
With cherry lips slightly parted, the white-haired, heterochromatic-eyed young woman spoke her final words.

“It was nice to meet you, Elvira… goodbye.”

BOOM—!

The seawater churned and the earth trembled.
Her words fell along with the monster’s giant maw, swallowing the young woman and the ground she stood on.
The golden pupils instantly shrank to the size of a pinprick, staring blankly at…

The severed, pale white arm that had fallen to the ground.

“Ver… ona.”

The dragon pupils trembled violently.
Elvira reached out, wanting to pick up the severed arm, but she didn’t dare to touch it.
She couldn’t believe that the beautiful young woman, so full of life just a second ago, was now nothing but a severed limb in the blink of an eye.

ROAR, ROAR, ROAR—!!!

The monster that had devoured the young woman suddenly roared at the sky.
Its body, swollen like a tumor, had four limbs, and half a human torso hung from the tumor.
It was the deformed old man who should have died under the crimson lightning and fallen to the bottom of the sea.

Elvira lowered her head.
Her long, thick black hair was soaked with seawater, clinging to her cheeks and forehead, hiding her expression.

Elvira knew that the white-haired girl’s last act of suicide was an attempt to stimulate her body’s power by sacrificing her life.
But in the battle at Port Otas not long ago, that body’s power had been nearly exhausted.
So, the black and red thorns did not appear this time.
The monster continued to proclaim its existence.

Broodmother.
That’s what people called the monster.
Perhaps because it had been soaking in the seawater for a long time, the Broodmother that appeared on the coast was grayish-white and covered with seaweed.
Its swollen body looked like it was about to burst at any moment.
Its size was far greater than the Broodmother Elvira had encountered in Norn City, at least four or five stories high.

What was worse, Elvira had just used “Dragon Language.”
This was a unique ability of the dragon race, and also a symbol of a superior being among them.
As a talent that the dragon race was proud of, the power of “Dragon Language” was naturally immense, but so was the cost.

At this moment, Elvira was like a soulless shell, kneeling on the beach, as if the monster around her was in a different world.
Her golden eyes, hidden by her black hair, were dim and tearful.
Tears flowed down her beautiful face and into the sea, like the white-haired girl she longed for, disappearing without a trace like a dreamlike bubble.

She had lost the only person who had cared for her without reservation.

She would never see that charming smile again, never hear those firm words that denied her curse, and never smell that comforting floral fragrance again.

The time she spent with the young woman was not long, but it was unforgettable.
Elvira thought of the young woman’s cautiousness when they first met, her clumsy and foolish appearance when she made mistakes, the little habit of twirling her hair when she was thinking, her slightly greedy personality, and… the tenderness of those two nights.

Every scene she recalled now pierced Elvira’s heart, like a knife twisting in her gut, a heart-wrenching pain.

She hadn’t protected her well… again.

And so…

“Dragon… cough, cough!” Elvira coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Dragon… Dragon Language: Divine… Might!”

A tidal wave of air roared and surged.
A clear dragon’s cry echoed through the sky, as mournful as a dirge.
A dragon’s shadow shot straight into the heavens, emitting a brilliance comparable to the blazing sun.
A scorching wind and heat wave swept across the land.
The black dragon hovered in the air, its accumulated power surging.

Cracks appeared on its obsidian-colored scales.
Blood-red cracks spread all over the black dragon’s body, as if it were a piece of porcelain about to shatter at any moment.

‘Verona is not dead… she must still be alive. I can feel it… If so, give her back to me, give her back!’

The giant black dragon began to circle, its wings carrying the force of a storm.
The white-hot light radiating from its body grew more and more dazzling, and the crimson cracks became clearer.
The monster was suppressed by the dragon’s might and prostrated on the ground, letting out a series of unwilling howls, like a venomous curse.

The Broodmother’s swollen flesh writhed.
All the protruding tumors swelled and burst, turning into chilling eyeballs that stared in unison at the giant dragon in the sky.

At the same time, Elvira’s body had reached its limit.
She could not accumulate any more energy.
The black dragon stopped circling and hovered directly above the monster, its wings spread.
Light gathered at its head.

In an instant, the night completely lost its color.
The moonlight was extinguished, leaving a world of darkness.
Only a single point of white-hot light from the black dragon’s mouth slowly fell, like a morning star falling from the sky.

As light as a feather, yet as fierce as a volcano.

The eyeballs on the Broodmother’s body shot out beams of light, trying to stop the “morning star’s” descent, but it was all in vain.
After a long while, the white-hot morning star touched the ground.
The blackness of the world instantly receded, turning into a snow-like bright white.

The terrifying energy flattened everything on the beach.
The water’s surface evaporated.
Reefs and houses were razed to the ground.
The Broodmother’s body was torn to pieces.
All things returned to nothingness.

Splash—

A black figure fell onto the beach.
It was Elvira, who had transformed back into her human form.
Her skin was no longer smooth and fair.
Crimson patterns, like throbbing blood vessels, climbed up her delicate body.
Now she couldn’t even stand up.
She dug her hands into the mud and moved towards the Broodmother’s corpse bit by bit.

“Ver… ona… can you… hear… me…” her voice was weak and powerless, and even a gentle sea breeze could easily disperse it.

“If… you can hear… answer me… please answer me…”

Suddenly, something in front of Elvira moved.
She really got a response…
It was just that it was the monster named Broodmother, the sound of its body trembling.

The Broodmother had survived Elvira’s life-risking blow.

Why… why couldn’t she protect Verona?
And now she can’t even avenge Verona… Why?

If it weren’t for… this damn black dragon bloodline… my “Dragon Language” wouldn’t have such strong side effects…

Perhaps Elvira had been dead for a long time, dead from the curse that was destined in her fate from the moment she was born.
It was an arrow shot in her childhood that would one day pierce her heart.

Now, she couldn’t wait for the arrow anymore.

The Broodmother’s thick arm was already raised.
A shadow loomed over her, gradually enlarging, growing darker and deeper.

Boom, boom, boom—

The sound of explosions suddenly came, followed by the sharp whistle of something cutting through the air.
The sound of heavy objects smashing into flesh and blood was the finale.
This sound grew denser and denser, one wave after another, almost without a pause.

Elvira struggled to raise her head and look into the distance.
She saw several rather familiar ships on the sea.
The sails of those ships had a conspicuous emblem—a scythe.

“All fleets, listen up!” the reddish-brown-haired fox woman stood in the center of the leading ship’s deck and shouted.
“Have the other ships go full rudder to the left and right, spread the battle line and maintain cannon fire! We’re charging in… to bring our two compatriots home!”

“Yes!”

The other-race crew members responded in unison and quickly returned to their posts.

Nadiesse stood at the bow of the ship, a bandage wrapped around one arm.
She snorted lightly and said, “Yo! It’s a big one.
Good thing I brought enough people…
You two have to be okay.”

After a moment of contemplation, Nadiesse saw that the fleet was ready.
She raised one hand high and shouted.

“All hands, listen up! Charge at that pile of rotten meat at full speed! We’ll ram it to death with our ram!”