THUM…THUM…THUM…
The sound reverberated not just through the ocean's depths, but through the very fabric of reality, a deep, guttural pulse that felt less like an echo and more like the furious heartbeat of an enraged deity.
The sea, a scarred and tormented canvas moments ago, now mirrored the boundless rage of Falazure, the evil dragon god of death.
Its surface, once a shimmering expanse, roiled with unnatural darkness, churning violently as if struggling against an invisible hand.
Waves, swollen with dark energy and tinged with an unholy phosphorescence, crashed against the distant mainland, each surge a thunderous reverberation of the shockwaves traveling from the abyssal depths, carving new, temporary scars into the shoreline.
Falazure, still submerged in the crushing darkness of the deep, was not only consumed by a primordial fury but felt a sliver of dark amusement dance in his empty, void-like eyes.
From his perspective, a mere wisp of a life, a mortal, a child of his adversary Bahamut, had dared to intrude upon his sacred battle…..and, worse, had managed to pull one over him.
The indignity of it gnawed at him, a festering wound to his colossal pride.
Draco, the persistent gnat, had cunningly pulled Falazure deep into the sea, now harassing him with what should have been trivial water attacks.
These were not mere splashes, but focused currents, needle-sharp jets, and hydrostatic pulses, each calibrated with maddening precision to irritate and disrupt rather than truly harm.
Falazure's enormous mass, usually an expression of his might, had become a liability, sinking him to the very seafloor.
Normally, he would have simply pushed against the seabed, a casual flex of his muscles, and risen to the surface with the ease of thought.
But every time he tried to exert that force, Draco, with uncanny precision, would negate it. Whether it was a sudden shift in buoyancy, a micro-current beneath Falazure's enormous claws, or a subtle pressure wave against his underbelly, the effect was always the same: his body would subtly lift, just enough to prevent purchase, the seabed always seeming to recede just as he sought to push off.
The trick was maddeningly simple, yet devastatingly effective, transforming the ocean floor into an impossible treadmill.
So Falazure couldn't rise.
He had no choice but to slowly crawl, dragging his immensely heavy body across the oceanic bed towards the nearest elevated landmass, burning his precious stamina with every agonizing inch.
His obsidian-black claws scraped against the rocky bottom, carving deep, fresh gashes on the pristine seabed, disturbing ancient sediment and sending schools of deep-sea creatures scattering in terror.
This was not only humiliating for a being of his stature; it was deeply annoying.
His reserves, though vast, was not infinite, and this enforced, tedious movement drained him in a way a direct confrontation never could.
Although he had other, more potent, more destructive means to break out of the situation…..they consumed even more stamina, a resource he could ill afford to waste.
His mind raced, calculating the cost-benefit analysis of each move.
Even if he managed to surface, hovering above the sea was Bahamut, her form a shimmering beacon of righteous fury, likely waiting, coiled and ready to pounce the moment he became vulnerable.
At the current rate, Falazure was surely going to lose this engagement, not through direct defeat, but through depletion and strategic disadvantage.
'If that is the case, I will have to be more drastic,' Falazure thought, a storm brewing in his mind. He considered unleashing a burst of raw anti-life energy, or boiling the water around him to push himself free, but the effort would leave him dangerously exposed.
However, he quickly changed his mind upon observing something promising, a faint flicker of hope in the otherwise grim scenario.
The frequency of Draco's attacks was subtly waning, growing weaker with each pulsating current.
The jets of water were less sharp, the pressure waves less insistent.
'So he is running out of juice, huh? Then that makes things easier,' Falazure mused, a cruel, cold satisfaction spreading through him.
He tucked his massive, leathery wings tight against his body, minimizing drag, and increased his pace, ignoring the still-present, though fading, resistance.
His claws bit deeper into the seabed, the grinding sound a harsh symphony of his renewed determination.
Draco's face, pale and strained even through his youthful draconic features, tightened.
His scales a vibrant blue, appeared dull beneath the oppressive water, and his eyes were bloodshot from the immense mind exertion.
He saw Falazure simply ignoring his dwindling attacks, a cold, indifferent determination etched on the deity's visage.
It was a clear sign of his failure.
Draco had expected himself to last much longer, using the vastness of the sea as his medium to negate some of the mind cost associated with such sustained water manipulation.
But the sheer resilience of Falazure, even when at a disadvantage, had proven too much.
Now, he was running on fumes, and hadn't accomplished what he set out to do.
Initially, he had planned to launch combined distracting attacks with his other familia members: Dimitra, Vasiliki, and Vasileios.
However, the battle between Bahamut and Falazure had gone too far out to sea, leaving the land-bound trio with no foothold to do anything.
Hastily, they had changed plans.
Draco would wear out Falazure for as long as possible underwater, subtly leading him towards a particular point where Bahamut could charge up and attempt the finishing blow.
But Falazure was going in the wrong direction.
He was stubbornly swimming towards an isolated island in the distance, a rocky outcrop that offered no strategic advantage for Bahamut's waiting strike.
It was a dead end for their plan, a place where Falazure could surface, recover, and regain the initiative.
A cold dread seeped into Draco's core; his stamina and mind were almost gone, his subtle nudges insufficient to alter Falazure's chosen course.
'No... not yet,' Draco resolved, his muscles screaming in protest, his very being feeling as though it would unravel.
He had to try something, anything, even if it was a final, desperate gamble.
Focusing every last drop of his remaining energy, he didn't aim to harm Falazure.
Instead, he channeled it into a powerful, localized current, a concentrated burst of hydrostatic pressure, designed to subtly push against Falazure's massive flank.
His target was precise, aiming to nudge him not towards the island's sandy shores, but back towards the narrow canyon near the mainland shore, that scarred the seabed just off its western face…..the designated trap point.
It was a risky maneuver; Falazure might perceive it as a weakness, a final, pathetic flail, but it was his only option.
Falazure, feeling the sudden, weak shift in water pressure against his side, barely registered it.
It was a faint, almost imperceptible whisper in the vastness of the ocean.
'A final twitch from the dying gnat,' he scoffed internally, his empty eyes fixed on the rising silhouette of the island.
He maintained his relentless trajectory.
He was close now, the underwater cliffs of the isolated isle beginning to rise steeply before him, dark and imposing.
Once he broke the surface, he could spread his magnificent wings, shake off this infernal brine, and finally deal with Bahamut.
The thought brought a grim satisfaction.
High above, Bahamut watched, a storm of power gathering within her very essence.
Her silver scales shimmered with an inner light, her breath warping the air around her.
Her eyes blazed with the fury of a thousand suns, focused solely on the distant, churning patch of sea that marked Falazure's agonizingly slow ascent.
She knew her children were struggling, knew Draco was nearing exhaustion, and worry warred fiercely with the goddess's resolve.
The finishing blow she planned….an attack of unimaginable power….required perfect timing and an unhindered line of sight, and Falazure's current path was leading him away from the optimal strike zone.
On the mainland's jagged shore, Dimitra, Vasiliki, and Vasileios waited with bated breath, their forms silhouetted against the turbulent sky.
The thrumming of the battle vibrated through the very ground beneath their feet.
"He's almost there," Dimitra whispered, her fingers unconsciously tightening on her bowstring, her voice laced with growing despair.
"But he's veered far away from the trap point. Draco-nii's failing."
Vasiliki, her eyes fixed on the turbulent waters, suddenly saw it….a subtle, almost imperceptible shift in the current around Falazure, a faint disturbance that suggested more than just random ocean movement.
"No," she breathed, her voice sharp with sudden realization.
"He's trying. Look! He's trying to push Falazure towards the canyon." Dimitra followed her gaze, understanding dawning on her face.
Suddenly Vasiliki's eyes snapped to the eastern sky.
For a split second, she had spotted a massive unknown silhouette amongst the bruised, storm-laden clouds, far larger than any mundane creature, its form indistinct but undeniably draconic.
It had quickly disappeared, swallowed by the swirling mists.
"What was that, a hallucination?" Vasiliki wondered aloud, rubbing her eyes, dismissing it as a product of her stress.
She'd seen things that weren't there before when pushed to her limits.
"Vasiliki, Vasiliki," Dimitra's urgent voice snapped Vasiliki's eyes away from the east, back to the distant island, where Falazure had now exited the sea.
His immense form rose from the churning waves, water cascading off his obsidian scales, revealing his terrifying majesty.
He began flapping his colossal wings, not yet for flight but to dry them and shed the oppressive brine.
Draco, trailing behind, remained submerged by the seashore of the island, a mere shadow in the tumultuous water.
There was no point in him surfacing; Falazure wouldn't hesitate to kill him in his weakened state.
He couldn't afford to be a liability to his goddess.
"Tsk, smart mewling brat. I will deal with you after I am done with Bahamut," Falazure taunted, his deep, resonant voice carrying across the water like rolling thunder, even as he glared menacingly at Draco.
Although he wanted to deal with the unforeseen variables known as Bahamut's troublesome children, he couldn't yet.
He couldn't afford to take his attention away from Bahamut; she was charged up, a glowing beacon of righteous fury, raring to strike him down.
He also really didn't want to risk being pulled back into the sea by Draco.
Although he knew the boy was exhausted, there was always a 'what if' with him, a spark that could unexpectedly reignite.
As for the others, Vasiliki, Vasileios, and Dimitra, they seemed inconsequential.…distant, land-bound gnats on the shore.
Turning away from Draco, back to the sky and the waiting Bahamut, Falazure suddenly froze.
A prickle of cold dread, unusual for him, snaked down his spine.
Draco, still submerged, and Bahamut, hovering ominously, mirrored his sudden stillness.
There was a new arrival, hovering high above the clouds, a presence of immense power that eclipsed everything else.
It was another dragon god, one Draco was familiar with, one that made Draco grin ear to ear despite his exhaustion, as it was a god that could drastically change the status quo heavily in their favor.
It was one of the first gods he had met soon after his birth, a vibrant memory amidst the chaos of his reincarnation.
It was the dragon goddess Aasterinian, the patron of invention and learning and pleasure.
"Hooo! Looks like I made it in time," Aasterinian's voice rang out, clear and melodious despite the chaos, carrying across the vast expanse as effortlessly as a whisper.
"Took a short nap and next thing I know 4 years had passed. It's nice to see you Bahamut," she paused, her voice taking a distinctly colder, more biting tone as her gaze fixed on Falazure. "Falazure."
She paused again, the shift instantaneous, her voice taking on a cheerful, almost playful tone. "And Draco, our young dragon-kin."
Falazure scowled, a deep, guttural growl rumbling internally upon seeing Aasterinian, but he maintained a blank, impassive facade, refusing to show weakness.
"And what brings one such as yourself here, Aasterinian? Don't tell me you came for little old me," Falazure probed, his voice laced with feigned nonchalance, attempting to gauge her intent.
"And what if I did," Aasterinian taunted, a sly, knowing smile twisting her draconic features.
"Well nothing much, just a bit over flattered that another beautiful goddesses is here for me. What more can a god ask for," Falazure replied, attempting an uncharacteristic charm offensive, a last-ditch effort to diffuse the palpable tension.
Both Bahamut and Aasterinian scowled in unison at Falazure's transparent flattery, their shared disdain for his attempt a powerful, visible force.
"Bahamut," Aasterinian called out, her tone now serious, her eyes locking with her ally's.
"I know," Bahamut replied, her voice rumbling with power, a toothy, bloodthirsty grin spreading across her maw.
There was no need for further words; a lifetime of shared history and divine understanding passed between them.
"Draco, take the others far from here. Me and my friend are about to...… have a little bit of fun," Bahamut warned, her command filled with an underlying pressure that spoke of unimaginable destruction about to be unleashed.
Draco, feeling the raw, immense power radiating from the two goddesses, a pressure that rattled his very bones, just nodded his head, already turning to shepherd his siblings to safety.
Falazure, on the other hand, had long prepared to flee.
His muscles were already tensed, coiled and ready to initiate flight.
The minute he had spotted Aasterinian, he had already come to the cold, undeniable conclusion that retreat was the only way.
What he sought was a singular life and death battle with Bahamut, a proving of strength against his rival….not to be ganged up on, ambushed, and pummeled to death by two goddesses.
His pride was great, but his survival instinct was greater.
He would live to fight another day.
A/N: Aasterinian's appearance shouldn't come as a surprise, I hinted at it in around chapter 143…..