Seeing the dragon's physical condition take a sudden turn for the worse, Midir couldn't help but feel anxious. He had finally obtained a scrap of information about himself, but the only witness was now on the verge of death.
“Aila, do you have any way to help it recover even a little? Also, do you have any idea about the information it mentioned?” In his desperation, Midir could only turn to Aila for help.
“White... that name sounds familiar, but there are plenty of people named White on the continent, so I can't recall anyone specific. As for the Patriarch it mentioned... it's probably talking about the Little Gold that my father and the others always mention. It seems something terrible has indeed happened in Dragon Valley. I need to send them a message immediately, but as for healing... I really can't help with that...”
After sharing her thoughts, Aila pulled out her communication stone to send a message back.
Seeing that she had no solution either, Midir could only try to envelop the dragon's body with light elements to see if he could alleviate its pain. Unfortunately, like Aila, he knew nothing about healing. Despite his efforts for quite some time, he achieved no results.
However, after a short while, Aila shook the communication stone in her hand vigorously and said with some irritation.
“I don't know if it was affected when we forced our way through that barrier earlier, but this thing is malfunctioning. The outgoing and incoming messages only show a few broken words. How is anyone supposed to read this?!”
Midir stopped his attempts and turned his gaze to the communication stone in Aila's hand. The originally flawless white gemstone was now covered in a layer of dust and looked exceptionally dull, with a long crack faintly visible along the edge.
“Sigh, it seems luck is truly not on our side today.” Midir sighed, his voice filled with helplessness. “Let's set up camp here for now. Hopefully, it can recover a bit on its own.”
However, before his voice could fade, the ice beneath their feet suddenly vibrated violently, as if the entire glacier were trembling. Startling cracks spread rapidly across the ice like a spiderweb, catching them both off guard.
As the cracks on the ice became denser, brilliant blue light poured out from the fissures beneath them. Midir immediately realized that this blue light was nothing other than highly condensed water elements.
“Look out! It's a sneak attack! Aila, get over here!” Midir watched as the erupting water elements acted like sharp blades, slicing through everything they touched. He grabbed Aila's hand and wrapped them both in a shield.
The water blades carved lethal trajectories through the air, but Midir's shield stood like a wall of iron, protecting them both perfectly.
The dragon, however, was too weak to dodge. It could only watch helplessly as the water jets ruthlessly cut into its body. Blood mixed with ice in a sight too gruesome to behold.
After the water jets finished erupting, this attack from an unknown source was not over. The columns of water rapidly froze in the frigid air, transforming into a dense ice prison that completely sealed off the space for hundreds of meters around them. Everything was imprisoned within this cold cage.
“Damn it, I didn't even sense this coming in this environment!” Midir felt a wave of regret. He hadn't expected this sudden attack to be so cleverly hidden beneath the ice.
Faced with the predicament, Midir reacted quickly. With a wave of his hand, a surge of the Flame of Destruction soared into the sky. The scorching heat instantly melted a large section of the ice prison, opening an escape route.
But the master of this attack was clearly prepared. Just as Midir broke through the ice prison and prepared to escape with Aila, the thick ice beneath his feet suddenly shattered into countless pieces, revealing a rushing river beneath the glacier.
At that moment, the attacks from the air followed again, threatening to drive them into a dead end.
Falling into water under the extreme cold of the Valley of Ice would undoubtedly be disastrous. Just as Midir expanded his shield further to push the water away, the dragon, which had been motionless, made a move that shocked him.
The dragon suddenly opened its massive maw and swallowed both of them, shield and all, in one gulp.
As the dragon's mouth closed, the two were instantly plunged into darkness. This was immediately followed by the deafening sound of falling into water and a strong sense of impact.
Clearly, while taking them into its mouth, the dragon had also fallen into the surging underground river beneath the glacier.
“Is it... protecting us?” Midir speculated privately. He noticed that the dragon didn't bite down but held them in its mouth in a gentle and cautious manner. The space inside the dragon's mouth was spacious enough for an adult to sit up comfortably.
To check on Aila, he quickly released a soft orb of light to illuminate the surroundings. He saw Aila clutching her nose, her expression one of pain and endurance.
“I didn't want to be thaved like thith! It thmellth horrible in here!” Aila's voice came through her fingers, sounding helpless and disgusted. Clearly, the smell inside the dragon's mouth was a massive challenge for her.
She managed to sit up straight against the dragon's tongue, keeping her mouth and nose tightly closed for fear of inhaling more of the suffocating scent, only squeezing those few words out through her teeth.
Midir couldn't help but frown upon hearing this. The smell coming from deep within the dragon's throat was indeed quite overwhelming. For Aila, whose five senses were exceptionally sharp, this was undoubtedly a form of torture. However, the situation outside was still unknown, so he couldn't easily decide whether to leave.
“Aila, listen carefully to what's happening outside,” Midir suggested suddenly. “Are we still in the water?” He hoped to judge their current situation through the sounds from outside to decide on the best course of action.
Aila listened intently for a moment and then nodded silently, her hands still making small gestures in the air. She clearly didn't want to speak another word to avoid inhaling more of the unpleasant air.
Time passed in silence. After about ten minutes, a strong vibration broke the quiet inside the dragon's mouth. It seemed the dragon's body had collided with something and finally came to a stop.
Once everything settled, Aila immediately grabbed Midir's hand and pointed urgently outside, signaling that it was time to leave.
Midir understood her meaning instantly. With the help of magic, the two finally escaped from the foul-smelling dragon's mouth and regained their freedom.
They found themselves in a massive underground cavern, with countless glimmering crystals embedded in the walls, decorating the place like a dream.
Following the path of the light, they found the dragon's massive frame lying quietly at a bend in the river, like a sleeping mountain.
Midir wanted to step forward to check on the dragon's condition, but Aila gently pulled him back. He turned to see Aila looking sorrowful, her gaze fixed on the dragon's massive body with eyes full of pity.
“Don't disturb it. To save us, it has... it's already dead...” Aila said softly, her voice suddenly becoming choked with emotion.
Only then did Midir realize that there were no more ripples of life coming from the dragon's body. The frame that should have been slightly rising and falling was now as still as a dead rock, and that golden eye had completely lost its focus.
Rate on N.U.
