Chapter 540: Volcano.
The high winds of Caelum roared as Strax hovered in the air, his black wings spread like curtains of shadow silhouetted against the orange sky. The energy emanating from him was sharp, almost physical, and the embers around his body stirred as if the world itself was reacting to his presence.
Scarlet, Ouroboros, and Tiamat followed him—each shrouded in their own manifestation of power. Scarlet floated lightly, enveloped in a cloak of smoke and magic. Ouroboros glided through the air currents as if the sky were his natural home. Tiamat flew with the fierce grace of a rising goddess, her eyes shining like golden stars.
But before they could completely leave the ruins of the ancient hall of elders, a cry cut through the wind:
“Strax! Wait!”
It was Elyssar.
She ran across the broken stones, her advisor’s robe torn, her boots covered in soot, but her eyes determined. She ran to the edge of the cliff, the wind whipping her silver hair, and shouted again, trying to make herself heard.
“Where are you going?! What are you doing?!”
Strax paused for a moment in midair. He flapped his wings once and hovered, turning to face her.
“I’m going to the volcano,” he said dryly, as if the answer were obvious.
“You can’t just leave like this!” Elyssar shouted, moving closer to the edge. “Think calmly, Strax! This is impulsive—you need to be rational!”
Those words, those last words… echoed in a way that made something break inside him.
Strax clenched his fists.
He descended a little in the air, coming within a few feet of her, his expression frozen like black marble. His gaze—once fiery—was now glacial.
“Just because you’re someone my mother trained,” he said slowly, each syllable laden with contained menace, “doesn’t mean I’m going to spare your insolence every time you talk shit.”
Elyssar took a step back. The air around Strax seemed to grow denser, as if the world were holding its breath.
“You still think you’re dealing with politics. With arguments.” He took a step in the air, and the pressure around Elyssar increased. “You want rationality from someone who had someone important to them hurt by a stupid attack from disgusting dragons. Only to come here and find out that even the council of this nation is corrupt.”
She tried to speak, but he cut her off with a flap of his wings.
“You’re only not dead because you’re a child. A child manipulated by older people. A pawn in a game you didn’t even know you were playing.”
His voice trembled—not with anger, but with pity.
“I pity you.”
Those words hurt more than any spell.
Elyssar felt her face flush, but she didn’t respond. How could she? She knew there was truth there—and it was that truth that hurt her more than any insult.
Strax looked at her for another second. Then he turned his back and said only:
“Stay and rebuild what you can. If you can. Gather those who haven’t been completely manipulated by these imbeciles and form a real army, not that shit the girls and I faced on our way here.”
And in a sudden movement, his wings beat violently. The air exploded in a whirlwind of black flames, dust, and wind.
In an instant, he was gone.
Only a glowing line cutting across the sky indicated the direction: the volcano on the horizon, where black clouds gathered and an unnatural energy bubbled like a heart about to explode.
Scarlet landed briefly beside Elyssar. She looked down at her, her red eyes soft but unwavering.
“He’s right. You just haven’t realized it yet.”
“Then why didn’t he kill me?” Elyssar muttered, her voice low, confused, full of pain and fury.
“Because even though he’s angry,” Scarlet said, with a touch of regret, “he still hopes you’ll change.”
And then she rose into the air again and left, following Strax.
Ouroboros passed by shortly after, without a word, just an enigmatic look and a half-smile that seemed to say, “Maybe you can still be saved… if you’re quick.”
Tiamat was the last to leave. She paused briefly before Elyssar and said:
“If you want to remain relevant in this new world that is emerging… stop trying to control the chaos. Learn to listen.”
Then she left.
Elyssar stood alone at the edge of the precipice, her silver hair dancing in the wind, the red sky tinging her face.
The city of Caelum was destroyed. The elders had been revealed as fakes or illusions. The secrets she knew—and those that were still hidden—pressed down on her like a thousand mountains on her chest.
She fell to her knees. And for the first time since the fall of the ancestral hall… she cried.
Not for the deaths.
But for the truth.
And in the sky, like a spear piercing the layers of the world, Strax flew faster than any living creature. The landscape blurred by. The cities below were nothing more than smudges. The clouds parted at his presence.
The volcano ahead glowed like the eye of an awakened god.
Inside it, Ignisar awaited him. And in the bowels of the earth, the Dark Empire, the Black Dragons of the Abyss, and the truth that no one wanted to tell—all of it pulsed.
And for the first time in a long time, Strax felt not just rage.
He felt… clarity.
“Now,” he thought, as he tore through the skies toward the mouth of hell, “the hunt will begin.”
The heat emanating from the volcano seemed to distort even the air around it. As Strax approached the crater, the sky darkened to deeper shades of red and gray, as if the world itself were preparing to witness something that should never have happened.
The roar of the flames below was deafening. A sea of lava boiled in the heart of the volcano, illuminating everything with a hellish light. Crackling echoed from the stone walls, as if ancient bones were breaking under the weight of a secret about to emerge.
Strax hovered in the air high above the abyss, watching everything with narrowed eyes. He felt the heat, but that wasn’t what bothered him. Something there… something at the bottom of that artificial hell… was strange.
An aura. Distorted. Twisted in an unnatural way.
It wasn’t ordinary magic.
It wasn’t demonic.
It was something that shouldn’t exist.
Scarlet appeared beside him, her feet not even touching the air. Her red gaze scanned the crater, as if she could decipher its nature just by observing the heat waves. Ouroboros appeared shortly after, his dark blue hair blowing even without wind. Tiamat was the last to arrive, her golden eyes already focused on the center of the lava as if she could see beyond the surface.
Strax narrowed his eyes. “There’s something there. In the center. But it’s not… it’s not real.”
Scarlet murmured, “Is it an illusion? A protection?”
Tiamat shook her head slowly. “It’s not just a protection. It’s a seal. Someone camouflaged something… or someone.”
It was then that Ouroboros descended a little further, getting closer to the surface of the flaming sea. Her eyes narrowed, and with a slight snap of her fingers, a blue glow sparkled in her pupils. She sighed heavily.
“That thing in the middle,” she said, pointing to the calmest part of the lava, “is not lava.”
Everyone looked.
“It’s fake,” she continued. “This section is masked by a veil of ancient runes, probably linked to the draconic essence. But the energy is flawed. Almost… desperate.”
“And what’s hidden there?” asked Scarlet, her voice now deeper, more attentive.
Strax did not answer immediately. He had already sensed it. That which lay beneath the layers of heat and illusion… was alive. And it was furious.
But there was something else. A familiar echo. Like the rustling of memories… like the presence of the woman who taught him to fight. The warrior whose blood still dripped from the sword he wielded.
His mother’s body.
Scarlet noticed Strax’s gaze sink. “You felt it, didn’t you?” she asked.
He nodded slowly.
“She’s there. But she’s not dead.”
The simple statement made the silence between the four of them absolute. Even the volcano itself seemed to hold its breath for a moment.
Tiamat frowned, her golden eyes gleaming with unease. “If she’s alive… then someone is keeping her that way.”
“Or trying to force her to awaken somehow,” added Ouroboros.
Strax gritted his teeth. “Ignisar.”
Scarlet crossed her arms, staring at the center as if she could already see the traitorous dragon. “The distorted aura you felt… is it his?”
“Yes. But it’s mixed with something worse.” Strax clenched his fists. “Distorted. Weak. As if he were trying to absorb too much power… or control her.”
Silence fell again.
Tiamat stepped forward, her golden hair crackling with electricity. “He messed with the wrong woman’s blood. You don’t mess with dragon blood. He’s trying to do something he doesn’t know how to do yet…”
Strax spun in the air, turning his gaze to his companions. “I’m going in. But I want you ready. If this illusion crumbles, chaos will be unleashed. And if she awakens…”
Scarlet added, “She may not recognize us.”
Strax nodded. “Or worse. She may attack us, thinking we’re part of the enemy.”
Ouroboros spun lightly in the air, already gathering energy in his palms. “You want to go in alone?”
“Yes. This confrontation is mine.” He looked at the three of them. “If she loses control, you contain her. If Ignisar tries to escape, kill him.”
Tiamat raised an eyebrow. “What if it’s too late?”
Strax drew Zani, its blade pulsing with bright red energy. In his other hand, his mother’s sword trembled slightly, as if longing for the reunion.
“Then… I’ll kill everyone.”
Without waiting for a response, Strax dove in.
The volcano’s flames parted before him like curtains tearing back to reveal a stage. The illusory layer of lava shattered around him when his aura touched it, revealing beneath him a circle of ancient runes burning in gold and red on a suspended platform.