The goblins on the street stopped in their tracks, turning their heads to look toward the north. The chatter and laughter outside the taverns abruptly ceased, followed immediately by a second and then a third explosion. They came in rapid succession, sounding like a barrage of firecrackers echoing from the northern side of the capital.
Leopold had already turned around, his golden slit pupils suddenly contracting under the dark blue glow of the fluorite.
A raging fire had broken out in the northern part of the capital. Thick black smoke gathered at the ceiling of the cavern, billowing and spreading in all directions.
“Are you okay, Isabella?! ...” Leopold hurriedly looked at Isabella beside him, but his eyes suddenly froze.
“To dare interrupt my resolve... unforgivable... unforgivable...” Isabella's expression turned ice-cold.
“Bella?”
Leopold only had time to see a tail suddenly sprout behind her. In the next instant, a dazzling silver-white light burst from her body. When the light faded, Isabella had already transformed into a white dragon, flying toward the north.
Leopold stood frozen in place. He watched the silver-white figure quickly disappear around a corner above, and only then did he remember that he could also transform into a dragon.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. But after a long moment, there was still no change.
“...Damn, I forgot.”
He stopped overthinking it, kicked off the ground, and sprinted toward the north.
Meanwhile, Isabella had already arrived in the airspace above the northern capital. Her pupils contracted into thin lines as she looked down at the chaotic streets below.
With a white dragon's superb vision, she spotted two figures moving rapidly along the shadows outside the mine shafts. Their steps suggested they had a clear destination.
Their clothing was also different from the other goblins—matching dark short robes with short-handled weapons hanging from their waists. They were clearly trained.
Isabella tucked her wings and dove down like a silver-white arrow!
However, in a distant mine shaft, two pairs of eyes were staring at Isabella.
“She really came! What a huge dragon!”
“The dwarves' intelligence was correct.” A tall figure in the darkness put down her pen and paper.
“Do you think Father will reward me?” another voice, sitting on a rock, asked with some excitement.
“To think the once-mighty dragons have fallen to the point of colluding with goblins. The Angelic God Race is truly formidable...”
“Shirwin? Are you even listening to my question?”
“Enough, Your Majesty Ilovina. You are at least six hundred years old, aren't you?” Shirwin said, a bit helpless.
The woman addressed as “Your Majesty” pouted. “What's wrong with being six hundred? This is the first time I've seen a living dragon with my own eyes!”
“Besides, what about you, Shirwin? You're almost over a thousand, right? Ah, right, right. No wonder you can't get married, Shirwin. Unmarriageable!”
Shirwin closed her notebook expressionlessly. “I forgot to tell you, Your Majesty Ilovina. The exam writer for this year's magic test happens to be me—the unmarriageable one.”
“Teacher Shirwin, Ilovina was wrong...”
“Hey! You two!” Blake walked out from behind the mine shaft, his gaze dangerous. “You're highly suspicious.”
When Blake's voice echoed from the shadows of the mine shaft, the two figures froze simultaneously.
Shirwin sighed and slowly turned around. The woman addressed as “Your Majesty Ilovina” was startled, her long golden hair sliding off her shoulder to reveal a pointed ear.
“Elves?” Blake's voice carried blatant hostility. “The underground is no place for your kind.”
Looking at the serious Blake, Shirwin couldn't help but smile slightly.
“Ilovina, let's begin today's pop quiz!”
“Pop quiz?” Blake narrowed his grayish-blue eyes, thoroughly provoked. “Don't look down on me!”
“The test duration is five minutes. You are only allowed to use Fantasy Magic.”
“Eh? But I haven't fully mastered Fantasy Magic yet!”
Fantasy Magic? What kind of flashy, useless trick is that? Blake searched his inherited memories but found no record of it. Still, the two elves before him annoyed him greatly.
But Blake was no fool. He naturally understood that these two elves were unfathomably deep. Furthermore, his dragon instincts were telling him that the elf named Shirwin possessed an aura that made him deeply wary.
Shirwin raised her right hand, a wisp of faint golden light appearing at her fingertips. “Ilovina, begin.”
“Wait—I'm really not ready—”
Shirwin gave her no room to bargain.
Ilovina backed up two steps in a panic. She gestured wildly in the air with her left hand, and a crooked green halo lit up at her fingertips, only to snuff out with a soft poof.
“Ha! Is that it?” Blake sneered. “What Fantasy Magic? Looks more like a joke to—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Blake suddenly sensed something was wrong. He looked down and realized he was standing in the middle of a massive swamp!
An illusion? Blake reacted instantly, quickly biting his tongue. However, the scene before him didn't change at all. He was trapped in the illusion!
What should he do? What could he do? If it were Leopold...
“Damn it...” he cursed under his breath, his grayish-blue slit pupils rapidly scanning his surroundings.
He raised his right arm, and countless ice spikes blasted from his palm, slicing through the air with sharp, whistling sounds. But then—they hit nothing.
Blake's pupils shrank. Ice magic was a lethal move in reality, but in an illusion, it was as meaningless as throwing pebbles into the sky.
Fantasy Magic... He grit his teeth, finally starting to take his opponents seriously. The elf named Shirwin was far more powerful than he had imagined.
“Curse it... If it were Leopold, he would definitely have a way...”
As he cursed in a low voice, the thick fog in the center of the swamp suddenly parted to both sides. A grayish-brown figure was struggling desperately in the mud.
Blake's movements suddenly froze.
“Save... Save me...” It was an earth dragon, barely larger than the three of them had been back then. Its voice was weak and raspy, carrying a tone that Blake was all too familiar with.
Bradley...
The earth dragon who loved eating berries. The foolish earth dragon who had pushed him out of the way during the angels' sudden raid.
“Blake! Save me, hurry and save me!”
“Bradley...” Blake took a step forward.
“Yes, come quick! I need your help, Blake...” An excited light flashed in the earth dragon's eyes.
“No.”
“You are not Bradley.” Blake's footsteps abruptly stopped.
“Unforgivable! You... How dare you make a joke out of Bradley!”
Blake's voice erupted in the mine shaft, carrying an unprecedented rage! The swamp illusion beneath his feet trembled violently, as if it were on the verge of collapsing...
“Teacher, I succeeded!” Ilovina looked at Shirwin happily. Meanwhile, Shirwin stood in the shadows of the mine shaft, her expression unchanged.
The emotional target of Ilovina's illusion was anger; the angrier Blake became, the more unbreakable her illusion would be.
Shirwin did not respond. She stared at Blake. After a long while, she smiled. This little girl had still lost...
“Ilovina, you failed this test.”
“Eh? Why?” Ilovina looked at her teacher, unconvinced.
Shirwin raised her hand, and a golden defensive magic barrier instantly deployed!
Clang! Clang!
Blake's ice spikes instantly shattered into a flurry of ice shards.
“Because... he has already calmed down.” Shirwin slowly looked forward.
Blake stood in place and raised his hand, his grayish-blue slit pupils gleaming with a faint light.
“Nordus Glacies, Penetra!”
Rate on N.U.
