Chapter 53.2 – Reader: The call from the artifact.
black dragon
A black dragon with the dragon spear
Xiu and Du Ze dismounted and walked towards the black dragon. Up close, they saw that the dragon’s body was unusually large. Du Ze’s entire body was only as big as half of its claw. He touched the dragon’s scales; they were as hard as armor. Xiu climbed up to one of its front paws, the silver-blue dragon spear in front of him.
The voice calling out to him was becoming louder and louder. Xiu clutched his temple, wrinkled his brows, and grabbed the handle of the spear with his other hand.
The noise quieted down. Xiu took his hand from his temple. Beneath the hand that was touching the dragon spear, a feeling rose up and made all the blood in his body surge as though it was communicating with something. He fell into a trance. This dragon spear recognized him, or recognized something in his blood.
Before he realized it, Xiu had pulled out the dragon spear. Du Ze felt that the black scale under his hand was no longer like cold steel. It began to warm up and the dragon’s body started moving slightly. It felt … alive. Du Ze had no time to react before Xiu jumped down and grabbed him, quickly running away.
“Hilda-”
The roar echoed in the cave, like thunder. Du Ze was shocked to see the black dragon come alive – how can it still be alive?! Xiu stared at the black dragon’s nilin. It had no wound and the knowledge he gained from touching the dragon spear told him why: the silver-blue dragon spear can cut off time, not just matter. The spear’s previous wielder had stabbed the black dragon to seal him, not kill him.
After the black dragon shouted out that name, it looked around in consternation, as if he didn’t know why he was here. When the black dragon saw Xiu and Du Ze, he smashed his front paws into the stone ground and stretched out his long neck, staring angrily at the two men below.
“Where’s Hilda? Tell me where Hilda is!”
Du Ze saw that the black dragon was blind in one eye; a long scar ran across its left eye. The black dragon’s remaining right eye looked at the dragon spear in Xiu’s hands and its expression became ferocious.
“You can wield it? What’s your relationship with Hilda? Are you her new dragon rider?”
The Black Dragon opened his mouth angrily, as if to swallow Xiu.
“First an elf, now a human! Why does Hilda always sign contracts with you tiny creatures? Even getting rid of me. You don’t deserve Hilda. She’s mine!”
When the dragon had angrily roared out that name, Du Ze had thought Hilda was his enemy, but now he knew he was wrong. Hilda seems to be a female dragon that the black dragon likes but he was sealed in here by Hilda after they quarreled.
Facing the furiously roaring black dragon, Xiu’s voice was very calm. “I don’t know Hilda.”
“Only Hilda and their Dragon Knights can pick up this dragon spear!”
Du Ze’s heart leapt. Xiu is not a dragon knight, so he and Hilda must be related by blood. Judging from the black dragon’s words just now, Hilda was with an elf – this must be the Moe Lord’s elf and dragon ancestors that he saw in the Time Corridor! Xiu also seemed to think of the Time Corridor’s murals. He looked at the spear in his hands. This is Hilda’s, his…
When Xiu did not respond, the black dragon wanted to rage but heard the sound of wings. A golden dragon flew down and squinted at the black dragon. This was just the beginning. More and more dragons, of all different colors, came flying down, filling the entire cave. They folded their wings and perched on the cave’s many protrusions, surrounding the black dragon.
“So you’re not dead, Muir.”
When the golden dragon landed, the black dragon just looked at him and continued asking Xiu: “Where’s Hilda?”
The golden dragon was infuriated at being ignored by the black dragon and raised its voice: “Hilda is dead!”
The black dragon roared with rage: “Shut up! How could Hilda die?!”
“Hilda is dead, Muir. When you helped the red dragon to eat her dragon rider, you had her cornered.” The golden dragon’s voice taunted: “Hilda put the dragon spear into your body, then she chased after the elf.”
“If you talk nonsense I’ll bite your neck off!”
The black dragon glared at the golden dragon and golden dragon returned that fierce look.
“Hilda is dead, I saw it with my own eyes! She dug out her own nilin! Her blood flowed for three days and three nights while she lay crying beside the elf’s mutilated corpse. She wouldn’t let anyone approach!”
As soon as the golden dragon finished speaking, the black dragon pounced on him, and some of the surrounding dragons joined the fight. Even though he was assailed on all sides by dragons, the black dragon did not stop. He continued to chase after the golden dragon in spite of the other dragons biting holes on his wings. Insane with fury, it was determined to bite that golden dragon.
The battle of the dragons spread to the whole cave and Xiu carried Du Ze as they avoided the falling rocks and dragons. Suddenly, the golden dragon was ruthlessly flung against the wall. Scarlet dragon blood sprayed two people. Du Ze’s glasses became blood red and he did not see the black dragon who had almost reached the golden dragon.
“Bang-”
The cave walls shook and the whole mountain began to fall apart. It only took a few moments before the mountain was reduced to a pile of rubble. The dragons crawled out of the ruin, unharmed. These stones could not harm them. The scarred golden dragon rose from the ruins and saw the black dragon with his back to him, staring fixedly at one point. It looked as though the black dragon wouldn’t move its gaze away even when the the golden dragon bit his neck.
The golden dragon squinted and saw something silvery. A silver dragon poked his head out from the rubble; it had a dorsal fin, eyes like red agate, and shiny silver scales. The golden dragon involuntarily loosened his mouth in astonishment, shouting: “Hilda …?”
The silver dragon glanced at the golden dragon then continued to carefully get out from under the rubble clumsily, as though it was a newly born dragon that wasn’t in control of his body yet. When the silver dragon had finally cleared all the rocks from his body, the others could see that he was carefully guarding a black-haired man.
The golden dragon regained his senses after a moment; the silver dragon looked similar but it was not Hilda. He was just about to bite off the black dragon’s neck when he heard an old, hoarse voice say: “Stop.”
An amethyst dragon slowly glided down. It was an ancient dragon whose body and movements seemed frail with old age. All dragons respected the amethyst dragon, so although the golden dragon didn’t want to stop, he didn’t continue.
The black dragon finally snapped back to his senses and looked at the amethyst dragon, his pleading eyes full of hope.
The amethyst dragon gazed sadly at the black dragon and its voice was almost a sigh: “Muir, Crail said it right, Hilda is dead.”
The black dragon looked at the silver dragon then back at the amethyst dragon, his single eye filled with despair.
“Hilda … is dead……?”
“You killed her!” The golden dragon spat out a mouthful of blood and spoke spitefully. The amethyst dragon looked at him with disapproval in his eyes. The golden dragon’s face became unhappy, but he stopped speaking.
“You can go to the Dragon Tomb to see her.” The amethyst dragon sighed and said: “You can apologize to her. Since she did not kill you, she certainly wanted to forgive you.”
The black dragon did not hesitate and opened its bloody wings to fly to the Dragon Tomb. He flew very fast. By going to the tomb, he could prove that they were just lying.
The golden dragon said that Hilda is dead, but the black dragon doesn’t believe it.
The amethyst dragon said that Hilda is dead, but the black dragon doesn’t believe it.
However, when the black dragon saw her corpse, he finally believed.
As the golden dragon had said, the silver dragon’s corpse lay beside a bloody broken skeleton, time eternally frozen in that moment. The black dragon stared at all of this. He had liked Hilda so much but always, in the past and even now, there was never any room for him between her and the elf.
The one-eyed black dragon bowed his head and wept sadly.
Du Ze finally finished wiping the blood from his glasses. After putting them on, the first thing he saw was a huge silver dragon holding him in its arms. Some silly, cute person’s brain immediately short-circuited. Xiu squinted and saw that silly Du Ze was staring at him in shock. That person smelled like the other dragon’s blood, which made Xiu feel unhappy.
The silver dragon bent down and was just about to stick out his tongue to wipe away that smell when he heard the amethyst dragon walking over to them.
The amethyst dragon went to Xiu and Du Ze. It looked at Xiu in surprise.
“Child, welcome to Dragon Island.”
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The author has something to say:
The last chapter felts like a congratulatory letter from every province. OTL
In the next chapter the rotten author will lose his moral integrity … ah … It is said that dragons have two…*cough* … pistols.
