Dragon Gods Reign

[Beast continent]

Landing on the shores from which she had left her birthplace with her clan, Allaire felt a mixture of emotions over her return. The land beneath her reminded her of a myriad of memories, both negative and positive.

As she looked at the handful of traces that still remained from their stay in the area, she couldn't help but reminisce about the journey she went through to now stand here. From losing so many of her people to the basilisk to meeting Darganth, the journey to and across the central continent, and even visiting another universe, even if it was one inside an artificial pocket realm.

Remembering how limited her knowledge of the world was back then, she felt a mix of pity and some slight envy for he past self. As amazing as her life had become since meeting Darganth, knowing that the entire multiverse of Vunreon may be at risk was part of the short list of negatives that came from it.

While Allaire was lost in thought, Darganth and Jennia also landed on the sandy beach. Seeing her absentmindedly looking into the distance, they left her to her thoughts.

Instead deciding to walk a bit further inland, they spread their senses and made sure that there were no mythical ranks present.

Waiting for some more time, they turned to Allaire when she was finished with her thoughts and walked over to them.

“Everything good?” Darganth asked.

“I just needed a couple of minutes, it's fine now. But getting revenge on a certain basilisk can never hurt.” Allaire said with determination.

Smiling in relief, Darganth didn't hesitate and activated the tracking mark he had managed to place on the basilisk. Learning its position instantly, he grinned as he found the beast to be in close vicinity.

At the same time, a basilisk inside a nearby cave suddenly jolted awake when it felt its instincts flaring up. Hastily turning around to find the invader it believed to have entered its lair, the beast became confused as it didn't spot one.

Uneasily looking around a second time but still finding nothing, it started spreading its awareness. Starting by reducing the amount by which it restricted its five biological senses, it endured the onslaught of sounds and smells that quickly started overwhelming its brain in an attempt to find the invader.

Still finding nothing, the basilisk finally decided to spread its mana sense to the fullest and without a filter.

In an instant its perception of the surroundings improved by many folds as the basilisk became aware of uncountable details. From the minuscule mana signatures of even the tiniest insect to the beasts roaming the forest, it became aware of every living being in the vicinity.

Not even the inanimate surroundings remained obscured, though the picture that it could make of the area outside its line of sight was blurry. As trees and other parts of nature lacked the mana signature that living beings had, the basilisk, just like most beings, was limited to forming a blurry outline of the area's current state by using the weak imprint that matter left of the mana at its position.

But even with this massive influx of information, the basilisk didn't immediately notice anything unusual. Wondering for a moment if its instincts had been wrong, it suddenly whipped its head around in fear.

Staring at its own body for a second, the basilisk quickly shook off its shock and instantly dashed out of the cave.

Rushing out of the exit, it descended down the mountainside as it headed straight for the nearby forest. Crossing over half the distance in a handful of seconds, it was just about to reach there when a blinding light suddenly flared up in the distance.

Abruptly turning its head around to see the source of this, the basilisk nearly froze in fear when it spotted Allaire flying toward it. Carried by two massive wings of light, she closed in rapidly while staring at him with fury written on her face.

Coming back to its senses as it crashed through the first couple of trees, the basilisk hastily turned back forward. Evading each tree and stone in its path, it tried to use the cover they provided to escape her.

Chuckling in amusement at this futile attempt, Allaire readjusted her aura wings to turn slightly to the left and onto a path on which she would intercept the basilisk. And as the distance between them decreased, the smile on her lips widened.

Slowly growing impatient as her conjured wings carried her closer far slower than she wished, she continued pushing herself to her limit.

Finally arriving within striking distance of her target about half a minute later, she let her aura flare up with a vicious grin.

Dropping out of the sky and through the treetops, she landed only a couple of meters in front of the basilisk who reeled back in shock.

Wasting not even a single moment, Allaire dashed forward. Drawing her sword at the same time, she came to a stop atop the basilisk's long body faster than it could process.

Turning around, she calmly shook the blood off of her blade as she watched the basilisk hiss in pain due to the gash in its side. Despite this it quickly managed to locate her, its head whipping around to her as its massive body slowly coiled into a cone.

“Who are you?” It hissed with a furious tone.

“You'll learn.”

Seeing as Allaire didn't seem to be interested in a peaceful conversation, the basilisk shot forward with its maw wide open.

Responding without worry, Allaire rose into the air as an aura avatar manifested around her. Growing from only about a third of its diameter in height to the fifteen meters at which her avatar stood, she easily grabbed both the upper and lower jaw of the approaching maw.

Holding it in palace, much to her opponent's shock, she watched with glee as the basilisk struggled in her grasp. Letting him exhaust its stamina, she intended to keep him in place until Darganth arrived but was forced to abandon that plan as the basilisk started to flail around in panic.

Throwing herself to the side as the basilisk's tail came straight at her, Allaire's eyes widened when noticed her landing spot. Disappearing hip-deep between two walls of the basilisk's body, she didn't have a chance to jump out before they constricted around her.

Frowning in annoyance, she was just about to free herself when she felt an ever so slight prick coming from the aura avatar's arm.

Turning to her left, she chuckled in amusement when she saw the tiny spot of stone that constantly formed on her aura avatar only to be pushed back by its regenerative properties a moment later.

Looking up and staring the basilisk into its eyes without fear, her amusement grew as she watched it realize the situation it found itself in. Eyes growing wide, the basilisk panicked as he failed to process the fact that a mere beastman managed to resist its petrification.

A moment later Allaire further added to the shock as she pried the hold she was in open with barely any effort.

Stepping over the two circles of the basilisk's tail that still encircled her while he was still frozen in shock, she jumped off from her aura avatar and dispelled it before landing on a nearby tree branch.

“And I feared you once, now you just seem pathetic.” She commented as she looked down on the basilisk's entangled form.

Slowly processing what had just happened as well as her words, the basilisk turned to Allaire with a puzzled look. Observing her closely, he went through its memories in an attempt to find out whether he had previously encountered her.

Silently leaving him to it for some time, it took over a minute before Allaire could no longer endure it patiently.

“Is this what my entire tribe amounts to for you, a mere ant that you've forgotten after not even five years?” She asked enraged.

Feeling her domain exploding outward along with her outburst, the basilisk shrank back in fear when its mana froze nearly completely.

“It- I really don't remember. I've attacked or been attacked by so many different tribes, they all just melted into one group.”

“That's your excuse, how pathetic. I at least give those that I killed the honor of remembering both of them and the reason why I did it. But don't worry, I have a surefire way of reminding which tribe I mean, after all, we are indirectly responsible for the terror that spurred you all the way to the third rank.” Allaire said with a grin.

As the realization of her words slowly dawned on the basilisk, Darganth and Jennia both appeared next to Allaire.

“It's been a while little snake, hope you didn't forget my promise.” Darganth said mockingly.

In an instant, the basilisk's expression fell completely. With Allaire, it had still believed itself capable of escaping. After all, as an early third rank beast, it wasn't an existence that had to fear many humanoids, at least on this continent. But with Darganth's appearance, this notion of safety was abruptly turned on its head.

Before the basilisk could decide on a course of action, Darganth jumped down from the branch. Undoing his transformation amidst his descent, he landed a couple of meters away from the tree in his full dragon form.

Standing at over seventy meters long and reaching over twenty-five meters in shoulder height when fully extending his forelimbs, Darganth completely dwarfed the basilisk.

Acting before the latter could react, Darganth's claw shot forward and grabbed the basilisk just behind the head. Not entertaining its attempts to free itself, he dug his claws into its flesh as soon as he felt the first attempt to break free.

“Don't even think about it.” Darganth growled.

The combination of his threat and the claws digging into his flesh quickly made the basilisk give up and slump down defeated.

Seeing this, Darganth nodded in satisfaction. With the basilisk admitting its inferiority and slowly drifting into despair, the only thing left for him to consider his vendetta fulfilled was its death. But before that, Allaire still had business with it.

Just as he was about to turn to her, Allaire followed after him in descending from the tree branch. Reforming her aura avatar and rising into the air, she had a vicious smile on her lips as she walked toward Darganth and the basilisk with her sword drawn.

“Over the years I've had a lot of ideas about what to do with you but I've realized that torturing you won't bring me any satisfaction. No matter how much I hate you, torture just seems unnecessary so I'll give you a clean death.” Allaire said.

Just as the basilisk felt relief due to her words, she continued, “The only thing I'll do is to give you an outlook on your mortal coil's fate. Live in the afterlife however you want, but never forget that your body will end as a trophy of my clan, fated to be nothing more than a piece of decoration to show that even your actions haven't brought them down.”

With those words, Allaire brought her sword down on the basilisk's neck. With a clean cut, its head fell to the ground while the body just slumped to the side.

Closing her eyes as she felt a weight falling off of her, Allaire stood still and stared down at the dead body before her in silence. Feeling her rage slowly subsiding, she started to smile wholeheartedly for the first time since arriving back on the continent.

“I wonder how Elstan will react to this gift, the liberation his death brought was something I didn't even know that I needed.” Allaire murmured.

“Must be nice, for me it seems like it will still take a while before I can meet my father.” Jennia said.

“Yes, and you'll also get there.”

Watching their exchange, Darganth smiled warmly as he returned to his humanoid form and walked toward them.

“Not just that, we'll all help each other whenever we can.” He said as he took them into his embrace.

“Always.” Jennia and Allaire said in near unison as they also moved their arms around Darganth.