Chapter 129
Chapter 129
#129 The White Dragon
The fourth Prince was utterly confused. He had only truly known Cassandra for a few hours, it seemed,
yet that trail-looking woman was shattering all of his expectations one by one. He couldn’t understand.
There was a giant hall snake hall dragon looking creature basically wrapped around her, and he had no
idea what that creature was, or more importantly, why it seemed to obey the young concubine, He
glanced towards the side, as Krai and Phe were walking around the lake to come to them. Moreover,
she had basically almost managed to kill Lephys by herselt
Cassandra turned to the Water God and spoke to it in that strange foreign tongue of hers. Meanwhile,
the scream of pains of Lephys could still be heard, and Opheus kept his hand on his sword. If he was
still alive, he could still heal. He was ready for his fifth brother to come back at any moment…
Strangely, he was actually a bit more concerned about whatever the young concubine was about to do.
She looked like she had gone through hell, really. She was covered in so much blood and dirt, not
much of her skin was so white anymore. Her hair was all over the place, and her dress had even been
ripped in several places. Not to mention her ankle which had taken a horrid dark purple color. Krai and
Phe finally reached them. Both dragons were covered in their siblings blood. Krai was limping a bit as
he came to Cassandra, and lowered his head to sniff’ the baby dragon that had just jumped out of the
water. The young concubine didn’t have much time for him, as she struggled to get to the lake. A bit at
a loss on what to do, Opheus helped her, though he was frowning.
“What are you going to do…?”
“Look for them… The Water God will help me.”
He still had no idea what she was actually about to do, but seeing how sure she was, he didn’t dare
protest and only nodded. Cassandra slowly got into the water, followed by the baby dragon, who looked
excited about going back into the lake. For Opheus, it was also his first time seeing a dragon actually
enjoy himself in the water…
Once Cassandra had half of her body immersed in the water, to Opheus’ surprise, the gigantic Dragon
decided to follow her back inside the Lake. The fourth Prince stumbled back, almost falling on his own
dragon, as the snake like creature rolled it’s long body back inside the water. It was a strangely silent
and imposing creature. Only Kian was overexcited, swimming and jumping around in the water like a
pound fish. Even Krai looked confused. The Black Dragon had it’s front paws in the water, looking at
the young Concubine and his offspring yet not following them as they got deeper inside. (
They got into the water in seconds, but it felt like long minutes to Opheus. He had hidden Phemera with
Anour and the younger sister, Anour having found his way around the Palace to protect them, but he
wasn’t feeling good about any of this. First, no one could ignore the horrible sounds of the battle still
raging inside the Hall. He could easily recognize the furious growls of Glahad and Vrehan’s dragon,
Vhan, still furiously fighting inside. If the Golden dragon hadn’t already won, it wasn’t a good sign at
all…
His attention was caught closer to them, as Lephys kept blaring under all of his rocks. His sons’
dragons were struggling to get him out of there, but it was a question of minutes. The fourth Prince
frowned. Those damn little pests!
“Phe,” he called.
The white dragon immediately turned towards the little ones, growling. He only caught the attention of a
few of the young dragons, but he started going their way anyway. Opheus was making a dark
expression too. Cassandra may be too nice and gentle to kill the young dragons, but he wasn’t the
same; All the siblings had grown side by side with death. He knew exactly what to do.
Still growling, the white dragon started climbing on the little mountain of rocks, and suddenly jumped on
the first younger dragon, killing it with one bite. Lephys was buried deep underneath, but Opheus had
no intention to bother digging his younger brother out to finish him. The truth was, he’d rather not dirty
his own hands. Instead, it was satisfying enough to have the weight of Phe climbing on the rocks add to
his suffering. With a bit of luck, that would finally crush him to death.
Meanwhile, Cassandra had finally swum to the middle of the lake. Even if swimming was easier for her,
the amount of pain her body had endured already made every muscle ache. Yet, she had to hold on,
for Kairen’s sake. He was fighting his own fight inside that Hall, she knew it. She had to fight her own
meanwhile. The young woman took a deep breath and dived. Kian and the Water God followed her
under the surface. She actually grabbed one of the Water God’s horns as he swam next to her. The
Creature didn’t seem to mind, and took her deeper in.
Once she felt like she was deep enough, Cassandra closed her eyes, and, with her mouth closed,
started singing. It was a song she never thought she’d used someday, that wasn’t made of lyrics. At
best, it was only some long sounds, like a siren of some sort. However, it used the deeper layers of her
voice, ones that echoed in the water. Sure enough, The Water Dragon quickly reacted to it. The
Creature started making deep sounds, echoing Cassandra’s. There was no comparison. Its voice was
much deeper and much, much louder. Soon enough, it started resonating all through the lake, sending
gigantic sound waves throughout the lake. Her eyes still closed; Cassandra had to stay focused to
listen to the echo. She had never done such a thing before, she had only witnessed it, when she was
much, much younger.
Years and years ago, she remembered watching the members of her tribe, diving in the water and all
together, using their voices to find where the wood of their shacks was getting weaker, where the fish
was, where to dive to hunt. It was a skill she had never practiced herself, but she remembered it well
enough, apparently. She could feel her own heartbeat, slowing down as if to let her listen.
She could feel the water around her shaking. Cassandra had suspected the Water God’s voice would
be louder, much louder. She would even have trouble staying where she was, if it wasn’t for her holding
on to one of its horns. Next to her, Kian seemed rather amused by the situation, chasing the large air
bubbles that left the Creature, swimming to follow the echo waves.
On the surface, things weren’t as calm.
To Opheus’ surprise, the surroundings of the Lake had started trembling shortly after the young
concubine had disappeared underwater. While he wanted to trust her and that creature she had
summoned Gods knew how, it started to worry a little as the whole ground under him began shaking.
One could tell the epicenter of those strange waves that shook the whole area came from the Lake,
and Opheus began to worry.
Before he could call her out, though, a huge portion of the roof, a few meters away, crumbled down. It
had already been fragilized by the earlier struggle of the iron net being torn down, but now, all the walls
around were trembling. Is that what she meant by taking cover? Taking cover looked rather deadly at
the moment!
The White Dragon was still absorbed by his little hunt in the rocks. The smaller dragons had quickly
understood that their survival was linked to whichever hole they could squeeze themselves in. While he
had caught the biggest and killed them already, the smaller ones had managed to crawl under the
rocks and hide themselves, though they could still hear them growling and struggling.
However, there wasn’t any time to play, as the whole garden was dangerously shaking. After another
heavy shake, the White Dragon finally jumped down his little playground, and went to his master. Phe
extended one of his wings over Opheus’ head, growling at the shaky walls around them. Krai, too, was
growling, but the black dragon wouldn’t leave the border of the Lake, his ruby eyes fixated on the
surface. Opheus frowned, feeling the whole Palace tremble. What was this crazy girl doing now! How
long could she hold underwater anyway? After everything that had happened that day, he felt like he
owed to help keep her stay alive, but there was truly nothing he could do when she was going on a
swim with some oversized snake! 2
To his surprise, the little dragon suddenly jumped out of the water, and flew with a long chirp to Krai,
happily reuniting with his parent. Right after him, Cassandra suddenly emerged from the water,
struggling to swim. Opheus ran to help her get out of there. She was drenched, and though it had most
of the blood and dirt washed away, her dress was weighing heavily.
“Are you alright?” Asked the fourth Prince, glancing at her, completely confused. “What was that?”
*It’s the Echo, a technique used by my people to… locate things. Anyway, I know where they are.”
“You do?”
“I located several younger dragons, somewhere south-west to here, in a very large building, something
like a round one…”
Their eyes lightened up at the same moment, as they both realized what that building was.
“…The Arena,” whispered Cassandra, astonished.
“Of course. He needed somewhere big enough to put all the dragons, with what he needed to trap
them. That damn rat Vrehan went to free all his little bastards from the Arena!”
The question was, how many Dragons were they talking about? Cassandra felt a shudder going down
her spine.. She turned towards the Great Hall, where the fight was still raging. The truth was, her heart
was begging her to go there and help Kairen fight off the red Dragon. However, she knew she’d be
useless in there. Shareen was already inside to help him, and Cassandra would be nothing but a
hindrance… Suddenly, just as she hesitated, a part of the wall she was watching burst out, and
something violently flew their way.
For a second, she thought she was going to die like this, killed by this humongous projectile. However,
Opheus jumped on her, and a shadow immediately covered them. Cassandra closed her eyes by
reflex, and a horrible uproar burst around them. It felt like a bomb had just exploded behind them. The
two of them were projected on the ground, and Cassandra felt some of her injuries get worse.
“Phe! Glahad!”
Nothing could have awoken her up more efficiently. Cassandra opened her eyes, and some blood
dripped on her cheek. A Dragon’s thick, warm, and dark blood. ‘She struggled to sit up, and realized
the large shadow over them was one of Phe’s wings. The White Dragon had jumped in the last minute
to protect them, taking most of the hit. Cassandra crawled to get out of there, and finally see what was
going on. Opheus had been quicker to get out of there. The fourth Prince helped her up, but the two of
them had to face the horrible scene.
Glahad had been violently ejected of the Great Hall, and the Golden Dragon was covered in blood, his
body landed next to the lake. Cassandra felt her heart go horribly called. Glahad had really been
defeated. Had he gotten weaker because of his master’s disappearance? The old Dragon was
breathing with difficulty, and Kian was the first to run to him, with worried little squeaks. Meanwhile,
Cassandra turned to Phe. The poor White Dragon had protected them, but he had collided violently
with Glahad for that, and gotten injured. One of his wings was horribly ripped open, bleeding and
broken in several parts. Opheus looked devastated, running to his dragon to comfort the poor Creature. Owned by NôvelDrama.Org.
Meanwhile, Krai growled and ran to Cassandra’s side. His growls were directed at the ruckus that was
still going on inside. Cassandra shivered. Glahad defeated, it meant Kairen and Shareen were alone to
fight the Red Dragon. Vrehan was really going to win this if she didn’t act quickly. She turned to Krai,
grabbing one of his horns.
“Krai, we have to go to the Arena,” she said. “Quick…”
She hoped Kairen could hold on a bit longer with Shareen’s help, but for now, she really needed Krai.
Neither Phe nor Glahad were in a state to fly anymore, and she wouldn’t make it to the arena by
herself.
The Black Dragon growled furiously, and Cassandra climbed on his back. He took off immediately,
headed south east.
“Cassandra!” Yelled Opheus as she was already off the ground.
“Stay with them, I’ll be back!”
The Fourth Prince watched the Concubine go, with a heavy heart. She was really going to do this on
her own? He grimaced and turned to Phe, who was already getting back on his feet. The white Dragon
may have been in no condition to fly, but he could still attack. Opheus, too, grabbed his weapon, and
headed for the pile of rocks.