Chapter 354
The sky above the elven settlement did not merely part; it darkened.
For the terrified inhabitants, the afternoon sun was eclipsed by two streaks, cutting through the atmosphere with the shrieking trajectory of falling stars.
They descended with a silent, predatory fury, hitting the earth not with a glide, but with the apocalyptic force of a localized celestial impact.
Boom!
The detonation of their landing sent a tectonic shudder through the ancient forest.
A massive shockwave rippled outward, flattening the perimeter of snow-covered trees and kicking up a shroud of pulverized earth and snow.
The immediate effect was the silencing of the carnage.
The dragon…..a jagged, grey-scaled monstrosity that had been methodically dismantling the village’s outer sanctum...froze.
Its amber eyes, previously fixed on a group of fleeing elves, snapped toward the twin craters.
In the sudden, ringing silence that followed the impact, the elven knights stood paralyzed.
They had arrived moments before, their silver spears glistening in hands that were hungry for blood.
To the elves of this borderland, dragon attacks were a grim, recurring reality.
Being situated on the periphery of the Valley of Dragons…..a geography so saturated with magic it was considered one of the most volatile regions on the continent.
The Valley was an anomaly, a "pseudo-dungeon" that defied the slow decay of the surface world. A millennium ago, when the gods had descended to place a temporary seal upon the Dungeon, they had inadvertently stranded millions of monsters on the surface.
Without the dungeon’s umbilical cord of concentrated magic to sustain them, these creatures were forced to adapt.
They bred, but the cost of procreation was a dilution of essence.
Each successive generation was a shadow of its predecessor, their magic stones shrinking, their power weakening, their primal fire dimming into a mere flicker.
Yet, some survived in pockets of the world where the magic lines bled into the soil.
The Valley of Dragons was the premier example of such a sanctuary.
There, the degradation process was halted, or at least slowed to a glacial pace, allowing the dragons to maintain a strength that rivaled their "Deep Floor" ancestors of the mythic age.
As the dust began to settle, two figures emerged from the heart of the impact zone.
Climbing out of the fractured earth, Draco and Aasterinian became visible to the gasping onlookers.
Recognition flickered through the elven ranks like wildfire.
This was not Aasterinian’s first visit to the settlement, and her presence was as unmistakable as a sunrise.
As a dragon goddess, she possessed some rather hard to forget features.
Draco, however, remained a cipher.
He was an anomaly beside her, yet the fact that he stood effortlessly in the wake of such a landing suggested a power that demanded some level of respect.
Seeing them together, the elven knights lowered their weapons, their caution replaced by hope.
The rampaging surface dragon was less inclined toward hope.
Its muscles bunched, its massive, leathery wings unfurling to their full, jagged span.
It let out a low, guttural growl that vibrated in the chests of everyone present.
It was evaluating its new adversaries, its mind…..surprisingly sharp for a beast….churning through tactical possibilities.
Surface dragons of the valley were not mindless beasts.
They were descendants of the deep floor dungeon monsters, creatures known for their cruel intellect.
They understood the concepts of baiting, of feinting, and most importantly, of knowing when a predator had become the prey.
The dragon sensed the shift in the atmosphere immediately.
The very air around Aasterinian had become heavy, ionized by a power that made its own blood feel sluggish.
Realizing the lethality of the situation, the dragon tensed its haunches, preparing to leap into the sky and retreat toward the safety of the mountain peaks.
It was a tactical withdrawal, a flight for survival.
But Draco and Aasterinian were not there to allow a retreat.
Before Draco could even shift into a combat stance, Aasterinian took a single, deliberate step forward.
Her expression was a mask of cold, indifference.
She reached up, unfastening her heavy traveling cloak and letting it slip to the frozen ground.
To the elven knights, she looked like a statue of marble and moonlight, but Draco could read the subtle ripples in her aura.
She wasn't acting out of a noble desire to protect the innocent.
Aasterinian’s motivations were far more personal, far more mercurial.
This dragon had chosen to attack a village that she found "convenient."
It was one of the few place’s near the valley of dragons, where she had ties, a friend, and a reliable source of a few comforts she enjoyed.
The beast hadn't just attacked a village; it had inconvenienced a goddess.
And for that, there would be no mercy.
As her foot touched the snow again, the dragon suddenly went rigid.
It didn't just stop; it was as if the creature had been flash-frozen in time.
Draco watched with a knowing eye, feeling the familiar, oppressive weight of draconic aura suppression.
To the dragon, the world had just changed.
The imaginary pressure radiating from Aasterinian was so dense it felt physical.
It was as if the weight of an entire mountain had suddenly decided to focus exclusively on its body.
The beast, which Draco estimated to be at least a level five threat….the level of an average deep floor monster…..was reduced to a quivering heap.
It couldn't even scream.
Its mind was flooded with a primal terror it hadn't felt since it had once accidentally crossed paths with the mysterious being who settled in front of the valley.
Io, was the terrifying guardian who had arrived thirteen years prior.
He usually ignored the "mobs"…..the lesser dragons who were too numerous to cull.
He only acted when the true apex predators tried to leave the heart of the Valley.
This lesser-dragon had thought itself clever, sneaking out through the rear passes of the mountain range to hunt the "soft" prey of the elven forests rather than the dangerous, magic-rich monsters of the sea.
It had traded a dangerous hunt for a death sentence.
Aasterinian walked toward the beast with a haunting, slow rhythm.
The dragon’s head was now pressed flat against the snow, its neck exposed in a posture of forced submission.
When she reached the dragon, the goddess didn't have a weapon.
She didn't invoke her arcanum.
She simply reached out and gripped one of the obsidian horns protruding from the creature’s skull.
With a casual, almost bored tug, she jerked upward.
The sound was what haunted the survivors the most….a wet, splintering crack that echoed off through the village.
In one fluid motion, she ripped the dragon’s head clean from its shoulders.
Half of the beast's spinal column trailed behind like a grisly tail, spraying hot, steaming blood and viscera across the pristine white snow.
It was a display of raw, terrifying strength that transcended mere violence.
The dragon's body remained for several seconds, a headless monument to its own hubris.
In this world, a monster's corpse remained intact as long as the magic stone within was undisturbed.
Aasterinian reached into the cavity of the neck, her hand disappearing into the gore before emerging with a pulsating gem.
As the stone left the flesh, the massive carcass began to shimmer.
In a matter of heartbeats, the blood, the bone, and the scales dissolved into fine grey ash, blown away by the winter wind as if the dragon had never existed at all.
The elves remained frozen, caught in a trance of awe and revulsion.
Draco broke the silence.
He stepped forward, picking up Aasterinian’s discarded cloak and walking to her side.
With a dry smile, he draped the heavy fabric back over her shoulders, careful to avoid the spots of blood that hadn't yet vanished with the monster’s essence.
“Wouldn't want you catching a cold,” Draco joked, his voice low and dry.
Aasterinian turned to him, the coldness in her eyes melting into a cheeky, triumphant smile.
She scoffed, about to deliver a retort, but the words were drowned out by a high-pitched shriek from across the clearing.
“ASTA…….!”
A blur of white and blue dashed across the snowfield.
It was a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, though her movements lacked any semblance of adult dignity.
She had long, crystalline bluish-white hair that whipped behind her like a banner.
She was clad in an exquisitely crafted fur coat that probably cost more than the village’s entire annual profit, but she wore it with zero grace.
Halfway to their position, the woman’s foot caught on a protruding root.
She didn't just stumble; she launched into a full, face-plant, her body sliding several feet through the slush before coming to a halt.
Draco blinked, his tail twitching in confusion.
‘Is this really her friend? She seems…..’
The woman scrambled to her feet with the frantic energy of a startled squirrel, dusted off her coat with a few useless pats, and resumed her sprint.
She didn't stop until she collided with Aasterinian, throwing her arms around the goddess’s waist with tremendous force.
As he observed closer, Draco’s senses flared.
He realized with a jolt of alarm that this clumsy, hyperactive woman was not an elf.
She was a goddess.
“Asta! Where have you been? I was so bored, and then that big ugly lizard showed up, and the wine cellar got shaken, and I thought…..” The mysterious goddess babbled, her words tripping over one another in a frantic rush.
Aasterinian reached down, placing a gentle finger over the woman’s lips to stem the tide of words.
“It’s good to see you again, Skadi,” she said, her voice softening into an amused tone.
“Hehehe!” Skadi giggled, a pure, childish sound that seemed entirely out of place in a scene that had just been a slaughterhouse.
She squeezed Aasterinian tighter, her blue eyes shimmering with a level of attachment that Draco found… unsettling.
It wasn't just friendship; it was a possessive, hungry kind of joy.
For a moment, the two goddesses were lost in their reunion.
But then, Skadi’s head tilted.
Her eyes shifted, sliding away from Aasterinian to lock onto Draco.
In that heartbeat, the air in Draco’s lungs turned to ice.
A violent shiver raced down his spine, terminating at the base of his tail.
The "innocent" persona Skadi had been projecting didn't just slip; it vanished entirely.
Her blue eyes didn't look like the sky anymore; they looked like the crushing depths of a frozen ocean.
There was a predatory sharpness in that gaze…..a cold, calculating intelligence that sized him up not as a person, perhaps a rival to be eliminated.
The mask of the clumsy, hyperactive girl was still there, but behind it, Draco saw the silhouette of something vast and dangerous.
The silence between them lasted only a second, but it felt like an eternity spent in a blizzard. Then, Skadi blinked, the chilling intensity vanishing as she beamed a bright, vapid smile at him.
“And who’s this child, Asta? Is he perhaps the one from back then?” she asked, her voice returning to its bubbly, high-pitched lilt.
Draco didn't smile back.
He tightened his grip on the edge of his own cloak, his instincts screaming that the dragon Aasterinian had just decapitated might be the least dangerous thing in this village.
A/N: Sorry for waffling again, I know that I tend to drag things out and add weird or barely known characters…….anyway will wrap this part within the next two chapters then proceed with the meeting between Draco and Io…..after that it’s just time skips to canon.
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