Chapter 477: Those Who Remembered

It started with those roars.

At first, everyone had simply grounded themselves, digging their claws into the battered earth to avoid being thrown back by the overwhelming force.

But then something changed.

As though an invisible hand had suddenly pressed down on the entire battlefield, or worse, as though their own bodies were outright refusing to obey them, everyone found themselves unable to stand.

Even raising their heads to properly look at the two dragons above them took considerable effort.

For beings who’d spent their lives believing there were very few things capable of forcing them into submission, being subjugated in such a manner was almost incomprehensible.

Lady Seraphyne, in particular, gritted her teeth as she forced herself to look up, so many emotions swirling through her that she genuinely didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or cry.

Because those two dragons...

They were far larger than any dragons she’d ever laid eyes on.

Even the shapes of their bodies were a little different.

And then, they began to descend.

The closer those two immense figures came, the more overpowering the crushing wave of dragon fear became, until the entire battlefield was smothered beneath dead silence.

But the two dragons didn’t simply crash down onto the dirt.

As the colossal beasts glided closer to the earth, their forms gradually began to shift.

Glowing mana threads surged around their shrinking bodies, weaving themselves together as they continued descending.

Long, sweeping strands of hair gradually came into view, one shimmering like pure spun gold while the other was as dark as the endless void.

At the same time, the swirling threads around their bare skin began to solidify, intertwining layer upon layer until they transformed into intricate, ethereal garments of an ancient design.

By the time their bare feet touched the cracked ground, sweeping robes covered their bodies, rippling with the same inexplicable power still radiating from them.

For a moment, neither figure could be seen clearly through the brilliance surrounding them.

Then the light slowly faded.

One gasp after another echoed across the silent crater.

Because standing at the very center of Wyrmfall were two figures many of them immediately recognized.

Kael Dravaryn.

And—

Riley Hale...?

__

For several long seconds, no one moved.

Not that most of them could.

The crushing pressure hadn’t disappeared with the two dragons’ transformation. If anything, seeing the identities behind those overwhelming presences only made what they’d just witnessed harder to comprehend.

Lady Seraphyne could only stare, her claws still buried deep within the battered earth.

Kael Dravaryn, she could understand.

Or at the very least, she could try.

He was the current dragon lord. He’d always possessed strength far beyond most of their kind, so despite the sheer absurdity of what they’d just witnessed, seeing him transform from that colossal dragon into the familiar golden-haired man wasn’t completely beyond what her mind could accept.

But Riley Hale?

Her eyes slowly shifted toward the black-haired figure standing beside him.

Riley.

Hale.

The dragon lord’s publicly known human mate.

The supposedly fragile mortal whose very existence most of them had long dismissed because his mortality worked well in their favor.

Except...

Seraphyne’s pupils suddenly constricted as a memory she hadn’t thought about in centuries resurfaced.

"It’s a shame that the dragon lord’s fated mate is like that..."

Her breathing stopped.

For one fleeting moment, the ruined battlefield disappeared, replaced by a ceremonial chamber filled with elders who’d been far too entertained by a tiny golden dragonling carrying around an egg nearly as stubborn as he was.

They’d been talking among themselves then, discussing the unfortunate match and how the future dragon lord’s mate appeared to belong to the nearly extinct iron dragon clan.

Seraphyne could still remember the pity they’d shown and the disappointment carefully hidden behind polite smiles.

Then there was Kael, looking at all of them as though he’d suddenly discovered he was surrounded by idiots.

"How could this be the markings of an iron dragon when it’s clearly a black dragon? Have you skipped all the required historical readings?"

The chamber had immediately erupted into gasps.

Some had looked toward one another in disbelief, while others focused on the egg nestled against the young dragon’s body.

Seraphyne herself had simply stared.

Because the very idea had seemed impossible.

The black dragons were long gone.

Yet she remembered the way the egg had trembled in Kael’s arms before nuzzling insistently against his chest, its shell pulsing with the faintest dark light as though responding to his declaration.

Still, most hadn’t treated the incident as anything particularly significant. Some dismissed the child’s words entirely, while others probably assumed Kael had simply made such a bold claim to salvage his wounded pride as the heir to the position of dragon lord.

In the end, however, none of their opinions had mattered.

The egg had disappeared, and after what happened to Kael, barely anyone had dared bring up the subject of that volatile dragon’s missing mate again.

But this?

Had that human aide been the missing dragon egg all along?

Neither of them had said a single word since their descent.

They didn’t seem to need to.

The remnants of that overwhelming power continued radiating from their bodies while their ancient garments shifted faintly around them, their gazes calmly sweeping over the countless beings still forced against the ground.

They looked almost like two divine beings who’d descended solely to lord over their subjects.

Seraphyne’s claws twitched.

It was true.

Kael Dravaryn’s fated mate was a black dragon.

And judging from the expressions around her, she wasn’t the only one finally putting the pieces together.

Perhaps the most unfortunate were those whose initial shock gradually gave way to something far more uncomfortable as they started remembering things they’d probably rather forget.

Old disputes.

Careless insults.

Actions they might’ve considered insignificant when Riley Hale had still been nothing more than the dragon lord’s strange human mate in their eyes.

There were probably quite a few beings currently reconsidering some of their life choices.

Thankfully, before Wyrmfall could be completely devoured by that increasingly dreadful silence, a small sniffle broke through it.

Riley’s gaze shifted.

Not far away, two children were staring at them with reddened eyes, both seemingly afraid to believe what they were seeing until Liam’s trembling lips finally parted.

"Brother..."

The word came out so small and broken that Orien immediately sucked in a shaky breath beside him.

"They’re back..."

Apparently, that was all it took.

Whatever the two children had been desperately holding back finally broke, and tears began streaming down their faces.

They’d been terrified for far too long.

And now, the two people they’d been waiting for were finally standing safely in front of them.

Riley’s expression shifted ever so slightly.

Then he tilted his head.

Runes immediately appeared across the battlefield.

Several beings tensed, only to realize that the glowing symbols weren’t spreading toward everyone.

Instead, they wrapped themselves around a select few.

Lord Karion’s massive dragon body was the first to rise, followed by Lady Cirila, Liam, Orien, Renee, Lawrence, Orryn’s enormous red dragon form, and even the battered Ilyss.

One after another, the eight of them were lifted as though the overwhelming pressure pinning everyone else down simply didn’t exist for them.

Then their wounds began to heal.

Cuts sealed beneath the glowing runes, torn flesh knitted itself back together, and damaged scales gradually regained their original sheen as mana flowed through their bodies without the slightest resistance.

It shouldn’t have been that easy.

Wyrmfall had always been such a tangled mess of mana that even experienced healers needed to account for the constant interference. It was precisely why those capable of healing themselves had still been left bruised and mangled after what should’ve otherwise been a relatively easy battle.

Yet Riley’s runes moved through that chaos as though none of it mattered.

As though even Wyrmfall’s mana knew better than to get in their way.

Another slight movement of Riley’s head followed, and the eight figures were gently pulled closer to the enormous tree.

And if the favoritism hadn’t already been obvious enough, Riley apparently decided to make it worse.

The moment his family was safely gathered closer, that previously unreadable face suddenly scrunched up into such a familiar, almost playful look that Lady Cirila’s lips parted while Lawrence visibly sagged with relief.

Even the two crying children seemed to understand that quick acknowledgment for exactly what it was.

They were fine.

Riley was still Riley.

Kael was still Kael.

Then Riley turned back toward everyone else.

And just like that, his expression became completely nonchalant again.

Lady Seraphyne’s claws dug even deeper into the ground.

Of course.

Her gaze swept across the select few who’d been allowed to rise while everyone else remained pinned to the ground.

Her own son, however, still lay among them, gravely injured and completely overlooked.

Seraphyne clenched her jaw as the implications finally began to settle in.

If those two truly possessed enough power to force nearly everyone in Wyrmfall onto their knees, then what would become of the red dragon clan?

The beings standing before them clearly had their own people and loyalties, and after everything that had happened, they had absolutely no reason to extend the same favor to everyone else.

She had to salvage this somehow.

There had to be something she could still do before her clan’s future became even more uncertain.

But then her head suddenly jerked upward.

Riley Hale hadn’t moved.

His lips hadn’t even parted.

And yet, his voice suddenly resounded throughout Wyrmfall, seemingly coming from everywhere at once.

"So what do we have here?"

The battlefield went deathly still.

And suddenly, more than a few beings began fearing for their lives.