Volume 6 Chapter 34

Volume 6 + Chapter 34: Revisiting Purple Iris Valley

“Your Highness, this is bad! Something terrible has happened!!”

Elly suddenly shouted loudly.

Xia Yi turned around and saw the purple sea of iris flowers beginning to undulate, rising and falling like a deep-sea beast surfacing. A colossal figure appeared.

It was a huge… bone dragon!

Twice the size of an adult dragon, it let out a hostile roar toward Xia Yi and her group.

“Roar!!”

Serra quickly moved to shield Xia Yi, blocking the shockwave of the sound.

“Awa-wa-wa-wa!”

Elly flew off like a balloon, and if Atiya hadn’t grabbed her in time, she might have been blown all the way into the sky.

“Is this a necromantic bone dragon?”

Serra observed the enormous bone dragon, searching for a weakness.

If it were a normal undead creature, it would certainly be a container for lingering souls.  

No matter how powerful it appeared on the outside, if the souls were destroyed, the undead creature would vanish.

Strangely, she couldn’t find any such soul vessel on this bone dragon.

“These are the guardians Dorothea placed in Purple Iris Valley. They aren’t undead, they’re control tools similar to puppets,” Xia Yi warned the others. “Anyone who enters Purple Iris Valley will be attacked by these bone dragons. Everyone, be careful!”

“Roar!”

The bone dragon raised its massive claw and smashed it down toward the group, aiming to crush Xia Yi and the others into pulp.

“Since this big guy wants to kill us, I won’t hold back!”

Atiya flicked her maid’s long skirt, sending a pile of weapons flying into the air. They rained down like a downpour, densely sticking into the ground around her.

With her as the center, the surrounding area was filled with all sorts of weapons.

“Heyah!”

Atiya grabbed two giant swords as large as doors, displaying her astonishing strength. She slammed them into the ground, unleashing two swift shockwaves that collided with the descending dragon claw.

Boom!

The bone dragon’s attack was deflected back, it staggered several steps, and cracks appeared on its hand bones, but they did not spread to its entire body.

“…This bone dragon wasn’t shattered by me? Unbelievable. This thing is stronger than an ordinary dragon,” Atiya remarked. “Interesting. Pretty tough.”

“It shouldn’t be a big problem, right? If there’s only one bone dragon here, we can definitely join forces to defeat it.”

No sooner had Elly, truly like a crow’s mouth, finished speaking than another enormous bone dragon appeared on the other side.

From front and back, they had Xia Yi’s group completely trapped.

“There’s another one?!” Elly regretted deeply. “I knew I shouldn’t have spoken so recklessly!”

Serra reacted immediately. She unleashed her true dragon form, transforming into a crimson dragon, and pounced on the bone dragon.

Then, nearly face-to-face, she unleashed a blast of dragonfire. In the fierce flaming gale, the bone dragon’s body was scattered.

However, the shattered pieces of the bone dragon fell to the ground and then recombined, fully restored.

“How troublesome. It seems it won’t be easy to completely destroy it,” Serra said, finding it difficult.

“Your Highness, I have a question for you.”

Lucia calmly sought confirmation from Xia Yi about the current situation.

“Are there more of Dorothea’s guardians further ahead?”

“There should be more,” Xia Yi replied. “In the past, the dragons who entered Purple Iris Valley were killed and turned into Dorothea’s puppets.”

“Is there any way to make these puppets stop?”

“The best way is to have Dorothea herself stop controlling the puppets.”

“I understand.”

Lucia made her judgment.

“From now on, we will escort you forward until you and Her Majesty the Queen find Dorothea.”

“Then what about you…?”

“We will hold off these guardians for you and buy you the chance to advance.”

“…Alright.”

Xia Yi agreed.

Under the current circumstances, there was no better choice.

Together with Lucia and Elly, she brought Xia Lulu onto Serra’s back.

“Atiya!” Lucia called out loudly.

“Got it!”

Without any need for extra words, Atiya immediately understood Lucia’s intention.

She leaped into the air, grabbed a giant hammer, and spun like a top, slamming the hammer head-on into the bone dragon blocking the way ahead.

After smashing the bone dragon aside, Serra, who had fully unleashed her dragon form, began flying low, carrying the others forward.

But they had barely flown any distance when another bone dragon emerged from the ground.

A spear pierced through the air and impaled the bone dragon’s back. Atiya arrived right after, kicking the bone dragon to the ground.

Then she stayed behind to fend off the three bone dragons.

Serra continued forward.

……

……

“Finally… we’re here.”

Xia Yi brought Xia Lulu to the foot of a massive cross.

She vaguely remembered that this was supposed to be Dorothea’s tombstone.

Serra, Lucia, and Elly had all stayed behind to hold off the guardians for her. Only she had made it here with Xia Lulu.

She had to find Dorothea quickly.

“Dorothea! Dorothea! Dorothea!”

Xia Yi called out the golden dragon’s name loudly.

“Come out right now! I know you’re here!”

“I need you for something, something very important!!”

After a moment, a response came from ahead.

“What’s all the shouting? What’s all the shouting? Can’t a person sleep?”

On the cross, nearly a hundred meters high, appeared a dragon girl with long golden hair. She yawned, as if her sweet dreams had been disturbed, and could not help but complain.

Dorothea rubbed her eyes and looked down, spotting a familiar face. Then she jumped down.

Just like before, just as she was about to hit the ground, she suddenly halted in midair, using threads so fine they were nearly invisible to step down as if walking on stairs.

“Xia Lulu, why have you come to see me again?”

“Dorothea, it’s me. I’m not Xia Lulu!” Xia Yi replied.

“Hmm? That way of speaking… Little Xia Yi? Why is it you?” Dorothea was somewhat surprised.

“Something has happened to Xia Lulu! Look!!”

Xia Yi held up Xia Lulu, her expression anxious, her eyes brimming with tears.

“She has four days left, no, two days, before she dies. She’s already lost consciousness, and no matter what I call, she won’t wake up!”

“Xia Lulu is about to die?” Dorothea was genuinely taken aback.

“Dorothea, you’ve known Xia Lulu for a long time. You’re friends, right? Right now, in all the Dragon Kingdom, no one can save her. I thought that maybe you, only you, might have a way. Isn’t that true?” Xia Yi looked at Dorothea with earnest, hopeful eyes.

“…”

Dorothea lowered her head and fell silent. Her bangs covered her eyes, hiding her expression.

“Dorothea?”

“Xia Yi, thank you so much. This saves me the trouble of having to go outside myself.”

Dorothea uttered words that Xia Yi found utterly unacceptable.

“By delivering Xia Lulu to me, you’ve made it so convenient for me to turn her corpse into a beautiful puppet.”

[https://ko-fi.com/golden_dragon]