Chapter 312: Desperate Measure!

The entire island shook, the tremors of explosion spreading wide, the super volcano growling awakened by the quaking disturbance making the job of a certain division even easier.

From the surface to the underground plain all who were currently in the island felt the rattling commotion, though most didn’t know the source.

Dragons were confused and the humans just assumed it was the doing of Elaine’s division, but one thing was clear for both sides, especially the humans, and it was that they were running short on time.

Back down below, within the underground flame world...

Gliding above the dense flaming foliage were two colossal beings, dragons to be exact, with glowing scales of differing shades of crimson.

Blaze and Ignis... Ash’s supposed reinforcements.

And these two felt the echo of the blast in real time, chaotic waves of raging toxic winds and escalating sparks sweeping them backwards as they struggled to fight against the currents.

Their mass tilting out of balance as the hot torrent washed over their sky-blotting frames...

"What the-" Blaze barely cursed, its gruff voice echoing harshly, wondering what might be the source of such tumultuous disturbance.

"Blaze, we should lay low and let the storm pass!" Ignis’s feminine voice rumbled, its frame already dipping down towards the towering flaming trees below.

At least that way the current would pass over them lighter, with less resistance, and they could keep pushing on all fours.

Though it felt unnerving for dragons who were known as storm bringers to take cover when facing one, they had no choice, this current flow was too great and from what they could tell it wouldn’t get calmer anytime soon.

Could this be the doing of the enemy? Both wondered along the same trail of thought.

Well, they didn’t have to wonder for long...

"Ash is Dead!" a cold voice growled through space.

Atherion! Both dragons registered the owner of the voice almost instantly.

Before...

"Wait What!!!" Blaze let out in confusion, coming to a sudden halt as his mind digested the content of Atherion’s message.

How was that possible? Ash was strong, strong as them, as long as their foe wasn’t in a realm above the awakened, killing him shouldn’t be that easy.

"HOW! WHEN!" Ignis’ voice followed similarly astounded.

The two dragons had long been alerted when Ash made his move, they were meant to be his reinforcement for fuck’s sake, from then to now barely a few minutes had passed, so how had the battle concluded that early?

Weren’t their foe humans? The weak dismissible race of savages?

Sure the race might have come a long way but they were still weak... so once again "HOW?!!"

Silence rained for a few seconds, with Atherion struggling to stabilize the communication transmission due to the raging torrent interference.

The dragon lay coiled right before the flaming gold temple at the core, a streak of bloody tears marking its chin, after effects of Seth’s dismissal.

By this point Atherion had clearly lost all previous calm and confidence, nothing was going right.

Inferno, their eldest and their trump card, was currently being occupied, their scant forces above ground were being eradicated, the remaining four prodigies were currently facing foes above ground also.

And down here, not only were their main combat forces being dominated, one of the prodigies, its own brother, was slain cold.

Worse was that, Ash had activated its reverse dragon scale, entering an overpowering berserk state and even then, it was killed within an absurdly short period, unable to last before reinforcement came.

Atherion was currently plagued by anxiety and fear. Since when did humans become this scary?

No! Not all humans, just that guy, who the fuck was that monster and what did he want with them?

Did the humans somehow find out about their ritual? Because no matter how much it racked its limited intelligence, the dragon couldn’t just point to why they were being attacked!

Compared to other ancient races the dragons barely sent a few forces to assist in the attack against the humans, they didn’t send whole armies.

So it made no sense that they were being attacked, unless the humans did know about the ritual.

This made Atherion panic, were the humans really going to succeed? Were they going to allow their enemies to snatch their only chance to ascend away from them?

The dragon’s teeth ground together in fury and helplessness, was there anything it could do to resist such a fate?

"No! I can’t let the humans win... Just a few more minutes." Atherion hissed, turning its head towards the grand pulsing temple doors.

Its eyes glinted with crazed lights, "We just need a little more time!"

The beast was ready to do everything in its power to buy some time, even if it meant turning its entire forces mad!

Seth could handle a single berserk dragon quite easily, then what about ten? If ten wasn’t enough, a hundred? A thousand?

They had nothing to lose anyway, if the humans had their way they’d be as good as dead so it didn’t matter if it was committing a taboo. They would buy that time needed regardless of the cost!

The communication signal finally stabilized, and Atherion relayed the next moves to both Blaze and Ignis, leaving both dragons shocked and horrified.

"Are you mad? That’s insane! It’s a taboo!" Ignis hissed in fright.

But Atherion’s voice thundered strongly from the void, "Yes, my dear sister, I might be mad, but I guarantee you that’s better than being dead!"

The strong convictions behind his words left the two speechless and unable to retort.

"I have said my piece: You follow my orders or you either retreat now to evade a certain death!" Atherion declared in an instant before his voice vanished into the wind, his presence gone.

Blaze and Ignis glanced at one another, struggle evident in their expression, they didn’t agree to this... but it was the only way.

Throwing an army of berserk dragons at their foe might be the only solution they have left...

The raging storm finally settled, the thundering explosions in the sky suddenly dying to weak harmless sparks.

Both dragons let out a low growl, their wings rising as they took off...

Back on Atherion’s end, the acting dragon leader established a connection with all of its dragon troops located in areas protecting the core...

Atherion’s eyes glowed, its voice booming loud relaying a draconic decree, one the poor creatures couldn’t disobey even if they wanted to, as the bloodline bond wouldn’t let them.

"Hear me, my brothers and sisters! Activate Reverse Scale!"