Chapter 352: Zephyrielle Demands to See Her Grandson-in-Law!

"You little dragon..." Zephyrielle finally released her slightly before looking at her with clear dissatisfaction. "You got married quietly and didn’t even tell me a single word?"

’Here it comes.’

Rhaenyra already felt a headache beginning.

Zephyrielle’s annoyance only increased as she continued, "I told my son not to marry that bitch Draevyra, but did he listen to me? Of course not, and now look what happened. She took my granddaughter and arranged her marriage without even bothering to tell me."

The "bitch" she was referring to so casually was none other than Rhaenyra’s own mother.

For reasons Rhaenyra had never fully cared enough to investigate, her grandmother and mother had never liked each other very much, although strangely enough, Zephyrielle still adored both Rhaenyra and her younger sister.

Rhaenyra had long since accepted that trying to understand the relationship between the older women in her family would only cause unnecessary headaches.

Unfortunately, what came next was exactly what she had been hoping to avoid.

"So..." Zephyrielle’s irritation disappeared almost instantly, replaced by a cheerful smile as she looked around the territory. "Where is my grandson-in-law?"

Rhaenyra fell silent.

Her grandmother spoke as though she knew absolutely nothing about what had happened during the Hero Summoning, but Rhaenyra wasn’t foolish enough to believe that act for even a second.

Zephyrielle might have emerged from seclusion only recently, yet if a demi-god of her level genuinely wanted information, Rhaenyra suspected that even the stars themselves would answer her questions.

Then the smile on Zephyrielle’s face changed slightly.

"Don’t tell me, darling, that you left your husband behind with another woman?"

Her voice remained gentle, yet a colder edge quietly entered it.

Dragons were naturally possessive creatures, and their pride was even worse, so the idea that her granddaughter had simply left her own husband in the hands of some lower-level human woman was enough to irritate Zephyrielle.

It didn’t matter to her that Luke himself was a weak human Hero.

He belonged to her granddaughter.

That alone was enough.

"So tell me, darling, when am I going to meet my grandson-in-law?" Zephyrielle asked with the same pleasant smile before tilting her head slightly. "Or should I simply go and meet him myself?"

"..."

Rhaenyra immediately shook her head.

There was absolutely no chance she was allowing that.

If Zephyrielle personally went looking for Luke while feeling this curious about him, Rhaenyra wasn’t confident that her so-called husband would return in one piece.

Even though she didn’t have any romantic feelings for Luke and still considered him far too weak to properly stand beside her as a husband, the thought of that cutie being reduced to half a corpse because of her grandmother wasn’t something she wanted either.

"I’ll bring him, Grandma..." Rhaenyra finally muttered with obvious reluctance.

To her, Luke was still more like an amusing toy she had been given than someone she genuinely accepted as her husband, but Zephyrielle had made one thing very clear.

Even a weak toy, once it belonged to a dragon, should remain within that dragon’s possession.

"Good, and don’t disappoint me the way your father did."

Zephyrielle smiled as she gently patted Rhaenyra’s head, although the meaning behind those words was obvious enough—she expected her granddaughter to bring Luke to her as soon as possible.

"Hmm..." Rhaenyra reluctantly nodded, and only after receiving that answer did Zephyrielle finally seem satisfied.

Without another word, her figure disappeared from where she stood.

"Hah..."

Rhaenyra immediately released the breath she had been holding, because although she had always been comfortable around her grandmother and genuinely enjoyed spending time with her, everyone in the family understood one simple rule regarding Zephyrielle Arkanthyr.

When she was happy, she could be the most affectionate person imaginable, but once her mood turned bad, everyone around her suffered along with it.

Rhaenyra was still recovering from that encounter when another calm voice came from behind her.

"Do you need me to come with you?"

Rhaenyra turned slightly and found Emberlyn Starfall standing nearby, her youngest sister having apparently followed their grandmother here because she had been worried about what might happen once Zephyrielle learned about Rhaenyra’s marriage.

Seeing that her elder sister had survived the conversation without their grandmother becoming genuinely angry had already allowed Emberlyn to relax considerably.

"No need."

Rhaenyra rejected the offer without hesitation before stepping away, and with a dismissive snort, her humanoid form began expanding.

Crimson scales rapidly spread across her growing body as powerful limbs replaced her human figure, while two gigantic wings unfolded behind her until, within moments, a thousand-meter-long crimson dragon stood where the woman had been.

WHOOOOOM!

With one powerful flap of her wings, violent currents swept across the surrounding land as Rhaenyra launched herself into the sky, quickly gaining altitude before turning toward the teleportation platform that would take her toward the Human Continent.

Emberlyn remained where she was and watched the crimson figure shrink against the distant sky.

"Sigh, I was only trying to help."

Despite her elder sister’s refusal, Emberlyn couldn’t stop a trace of curiosity from appearing on her face when she thought about the Human Hero whom Rhaenyra had been ordered to bring back.

She had never personally met Luke, yet somehow this one human had ended up marrying five princesses belonging to imperial royal families of five different races, something that had never happened anywhere in the recorded history of Valtharion.

Naturally, Emberlyn couldn’t help wondering what kind of person he actually was.

***

Back in Blackstone, Rhaenyra’s thoughts about her grandmother were abruptly interrupted when another quiet voice reached her ears.

"Ultimate Ability — Dream Convergence."

Rhaenyra’s attention immediately shifted toward Theia, but before she could react further, the entire world surrounding her changed.

Blackstone disappeared.

Aurielle vanished from her sight along with the soldiers, buildings, streets, and everyone else who had been present only an instant earlier, leaving Rhaenyra suspended within an unfamiliar dreamscape created by Theia’s S-Rank Origin Skill.

Rhaenyra calmly looked around before a faint trace of disdain crossed her draconic features.

"Heh, futile tricks."

Dream Convergence might have been capable of trapping powerful opponents, and Theia had previously forced even A-Rank beings into her dream world for a short period, but Rhaenyra possessed something particularly troublesome for an illusion-based ability.

Her Dragon Eyes.

Golden light gathered faintly within her pupils as her vision penetrated through the false world surrounding her, allowing her to see the structure beneath the manifested dream rather than becoming lost inside it.

"Break."

The single command left her mouth calmly.

CRAAAAACK!

Fractures immediately spread across the dreamscape like cracks running through glass, and before Theia could reinforce the technique, the entire artificial world shattered apart.

Rhaenyra’s vision returned to Blackstone.

At the same moment, Theia staggered backward several steps before blood escaped from her mouth, the violent destruction of Dream Convergence sending the backlash straight through her mind and Origin connection.

"Cough!"

She caught herself before falling, one hand pressing against the ground as she tried to stabilize her breathing.

Rhaenyra barely spared her another glance, because Aurielle was already rushing toward her from the front with golden-white energy gathering around her body, while nearby, Elena’s enormous white angelic wings spread open as she prepared to join the attack.

Rhaenyra sighed.

"All of you are far too weak, yet it seems none of you understand that."

The moment those words left her mouth, the daylight above Blackstone suddenly disappeared beneath an expanding crimson shadow.