Chapter 59

Without the knowledge of how the original translucent bridges that connected the kingdom were created, a temporary measure had to be taken. Not as beautiful or amazing, indeed, but still useful and quite safe, Ethan personally built earthen bridges, trying his best to replicate the originals.

It took a while for them to even breathe properly before the Black Raven, let alone walk. Nevertheless, the kingdom needed to be rebuilt and those who had departed deserved a dignified funeral.

The beach filled up again, both with people and canoes. Cries and shouts echoed, while the waters swayed upon contact with the wood. Arrows fell precisely, causing flames to spread and illuminate the waters, reflecting a strange and beautiful phenomenon. With the barrier's destruction, a battle between the moons and the sun occurred constantly, including at this moment, creating a unique image on the waters where the lights of each reflected as they fought.

"What is that creature? And what did it say to make you like this?"

Taking a step forward, Clovis raised his hand and, with concentration, created the white dragon with red eyes. However, his heart tightened, and looking back in silence, the red glow over the castle marked him.

"I don't know, it's just that..."

Sitting on the edge of the stone, Ethan rested his chin on his knee and continued watching the canoes slowly being carried away by the waters. For some reason, he felt a strange sensation and had been somewhat anxious since talking to the Black Raven.

"He said they're coming..."

"They...?"

Ethan nodded.

While Clovis looked again at the creature with some hesitation, Ethan didn't take his eyes off the waters because they reminded him of the dragon, which caused the constant insults uttered by it to keep echoing in his mind.

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The glow in the beast's throat emerged, and drawing her sword, Elizabeth made a quick movement, raising her blade. The jet of ice was launched, but just like the frozen waters ahead, it was split in half before even reaching the lake's edge.

Dealing with two more creatures wouldn't be impossible. However, looking to the skies, Elizabeth clenched her fist tightly around the hilt and sheathed her sword immediately afterward. Turning around, she grabbed the children in her arms and ran as fast as she could away from that place.

The sky above their heads darkened, for from all sides, dragons roared and gathered, forming a huge shadow under the clouds. Despite the view ahead not changing at any moment, with white always dominating every corner of her vision, her steps were quick, and she knew it, after all, more than two cities had already passed by her side by then. But, for some reason, demonstrating an abnormal determination, the roars didn't distance and the dragons didn't stop pursuing them throughout the kingdom.

Her feet slid over the white clouds covering the ground without even sinking. The beasts roared, causing more creatures to appear beside her, emerging from a huge ice fortress. Expanding her field of vision momentarily beyond what lay before her feet, Elizabeth saw the unmistakable walls of Avaloria... a city that now was nothing but a heap of crystalline structures. At its center stood the royal castle, the only one not completely consumed by the beasts' attacks.

"Marie..."

Brown hair swayed and a pure and bright smile appeared before her vision, but, closing her eyes, the city of Avaloria was left behind along with the tears that fell from her eyes and dropped like crystals onto the snow briefly marked by her steps.

With a bitter taste in her mouth, Elizabeth continued along the whitish path while the roars echoed through the skies. In a few moments, a forest of crystalline trees emerged, creating a vision worthy of a dream. However, upon crossing it, once again, as expected, another city turned into ice stood before her. Meadowhaven no longer existed.

Looking to the side, Elizabeth saw what remained unchanged amidst such chaos. Firm and with their original colors, with their dark brown trunks and leaves of various hues, as if an enormous protective field was erected around them, the trees of the Great Forest showed no sign of being in contact with even a single grain of ice.

"..."

With the emergence of an idea in her mind, her eyes rose, aiming at the unreachable tops of the tallest trees. Darkness revealed itself, causing all the nearby dragons to roar and flee upon the revelation of the red glow. Dark creatures appeared at the top of each tree, dozens or perhaps hundreds of them, gazing at everything below their feet like absolute judges.

A tremor spread, and shaking her head, Elizabeth continued running towards the border of Camelot with the Demonic realm.

Various roars echoed, and looking up, Elizabeth saw that the creatures were about to surpass her. Even with the thick layer of snow covering the ground, the scent of blood impregnated the air, making her stomach churn immediately.

Her vision ahead widened and, with her eyebrows rising and her eyes widening, Elizabeth was left speechless, for, in the middle of the field, a huge hole and, floating amid the waters, the body and head of a monster with simply unbelievable proportions could be seen.

"...Who killed that thing was..."

A roar echoed again, but this time, the creature responsible for it was already far ahead of her. Instinctively, Elizabeth stopped and considered drawing her sword, despite knowing it would be futile. However, looking up, with the resounding roars of the beasts, not a single dragon bothered to look in her direction.

With wing beats so desperate and roars that, upon closer observation, sounded completely different from usual, carrying a painful tone, as if all were screaming for help in perfect unison, only one option came to Elizabeth's mind.

"They're all... fleeing...? But... from whom...? Or..."

Her eyes turned towards the skies and, without any pause between their wing beats, the creatures kept passing over her head.

"...from what...?"

Her body spun awkwardly towards the ground, and as it surpassed the snow, the dragon collided with the earth. Elizabeth turned, shielding the children from harm, but when the tremors ceased, she couldn't resist the urge to look at the monster that had somehow been felled.

"Is that... an arrow...?"

After the first, the roars did not stop and the falls were endless. Falling like meteors, dragons marked every side of the vast snowy field.

Looking around, Elizabeth couldn't fathom what kind of being could do something like this. However, as her eyes scanned the falling sky, she saw something flying behind the frightened dragons.

A large, yellow lion-like body ending with a long serpent tail. Its claws glinted, and attached to its front dorsals were fearsome eagle wings, enabling it to move at an incredible speed. These creatures didn't seem capable of long-range attacks, but the answer to this lay a bit higher, mounted on their backs.

With a bow in hand, red hair blew in the wind, revealing long, pointed ears, while her eyes remained fixed on every movement of the dragons ahead. Moving her finger swiftly, the precision and power of each shot were unmatched, always hitting the center of each creature's head and causing an immediate fall.

"Is that an... elf? Are there elves in this world?"

Amidst the chaos, the idea of seeking refuge in the Great Forest no longer seemed so irrational. After all, that creature had never personally interfered with what happened under the trees' canopy. However, as she moved her feet briefly, a glint passed before her eyes, and looking down, she saw an arrow lodged in the small space between her legs.

Swallowing hard, Elizabeth looked up. The elf watched her with the bow in hand, and with an inevitable collision against an attacking dragon, she vanished like a flash and reappeared atop the beast's head. After a loud crash, the creature fell without even roaring, and as if nothing had happened, the elf was again calmly on the back of her mount.

This was certainly a powerful being. But would it be enough to make the dragons act so desperately? No, and looking to the distant sky, Elizabeth confirmed the answer to her question.

A creature somewhat similar to dragons, yet different. With robust, large bodies, ending with a long tail that whipped through the air like a fearsome lash. Their enormous teeth reflected the sunlight, and attached to their forelimbs were wings that easily kept them aloft at such heights.

The skies were filled with these fantastic creatures and many others, including enormous birds whose red feathers seemed constantly aflame, but this didn't seem to matter or hinder those riding them with such natural ease.

There were so many incredible creatures that Elizabeth couldn't widen her eyes any further, but when the ocean waters rose in the shape of a gigantic dome before her, she had to.

Escape routes were non-existent, as with the rise of the waters, all dragons over the sea were caught in the grand movement. The distance did not hinder her, and neither did the waters; her eyes could see perfectly within the bubble, but this also meant she couldn't keep up with everything happening inside.

In an instant, dragon heads were severed from their bodies without giving Elizabeth time to blink. Then, in less time than it would take to blink, no living ice dragon remained. The water dome collapsed, creating a massive wave that pushed the colossal dragon's body towards the shore, forcing Elizabeth to leap onto the creature to avoid being crushed.

Speechless—this was the phrase that best described Elizabeth and the children's situation at that moment. Their eyes couldn't believe or comprehend the being before them. The cold no longer reached them, and glancing briefly into its gigantic eyes, they felt their own mana stir, with every atom of their bodies commanding them to kneel as they saw an inescapable wave coming and felt their bodies submerged in something heavy and painful.

The approach of what could be described as an ancestral turtle of colossal proportions continued, and completely paralyzed, the children and Elizabeth watched without blinking or daring to move a single muscle.

Slowly submerging, the beast disappeared into the ocean waters, leaving only the kingdom it carried on its back on the surface. This was the moment when the three finally managed to breathe again.

"Arf! Arf! Arf! Arf!..."

The pressure of merely being in its presence was so immense that, not just mentally, it caused them severe physical pain.

"Tell me, what exactly happened in this place?"

Her red hair swayed, and with a bow in hand, the gleam of her green eyes made Elizabeth shudder. Acting quickly, she gathered the children and stepped in front of the arrow's aim.

"You won't answer...?"

Slowly pulling with her fingers, the string stretched and the arrow's tip glowed.

"Last chance."

Contemplating drawing her sword, Elizabeth trembled, as her eyes scanned the space beyond the elf and stripped all confidence from her being. Creatures landed on the snow, one after another, endlessly.

"What are you doing? Lower your weapon."

The imposing voice from behind made her turn, just as the elf put away her arrow.

"You haven't seen what we have, which is why you're acting so calmly."

Once more, Elizabeth widened her eyes and, with trembling hands, drew the children closer to herself, for walking normally over the waters, a massive army extended from all sides of the sea to the kingdom on the turtle.

"It doesn't matter. We need information; killing them won't bring us anything."

The man whose voice had stopped the elf jumped onto the dragon's body, stopping near where she stood.

"But you're right. We don't have time, so you, answer her question..."

Feeling the heat intensify at her waist, the man looked down, and raising his eyebrows, couldn't suppress the tremors spreading through his body.

"I salute your highness!"

His knee struck the ice, creating a hole at the impact site, and his head lowered as he carefully raised the dagger that continued to shine with a golden light.

"What...?!"

Looking at her bow, the elf shuddered. She threw it away and, with cold sweat dripping from her hair, quickly knelt. Then, like a cascade effect, as the dagger's glow intensified, everyone, without exception, humanoid or not, knelt before Elizabeth, who, confused, didn't know what to say or whether she should even try to say anything.

"Huh...? Strange..."

From the glowing blade echoed a voice that, upon hearing it, made the man holding the dagger bow even further.

"I believe that... yes, I thought it was a boy..."

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Well, I chose not to post a chapter yesterday because I preferred to combine the two chapters, from yesterday and today, to make the last chapter of the volume longer.

And, well, I think the title that the story currently has no longer makes sense. It was already in the prologues that I had written before, and I just continued with it. But obviously, my idea for the story's progression has changed, and therefore I should have changed the title earlier. Well, I haven't thought of any other alternative title yet, so it will remain as it is for now. Maybe I'll change it later... or not, I might forget...

Next week there won't be a chapter, because I'll be trying to think a bit about the other locations, for example, the place where the elves who appeared in this chapter live, and also about some other things.

I already have the ending in mind, but there are still many things missing to get there.

Well, thank you for reading.