Grand Ancestral Bloodlines
chapter-1631

Pyrothos, as expected, was immediately infuriated. His maw opened wide, scars running along his throat lighting up like molten metal as a fireball began to form.

"Pyrothos, this isn't necessary. I only acted to save the lives of my daughter and son-in-law. They are too weak to handle your aura."

Pyrothos didn't answer, the fireball suddenly rolling in his throat like tempered metal before it suddenly erupted akin to an iron ball from a cannon.

BOOM!

The world seemed to collapse. The laws bent and twisted, however, under some mysterious power, rather than breaking into the void like an attack of such power should have, it somehow forcefully stabilized the world around it, forcing it to withstand its power.

Lysander unleashed a roar, sending Ryu and Selheira far from himself as he sparkled with a crystalline light.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Lysander slid through the skies, tall mountains of crystal forming as he blocked the fireball that rolled through the skies far more like molten metal than a bundle of flames.

"Pyrothos!" Lysander spoke with exasperation.

The Dragon Emperor suddenly burst through the mountains, appearing before Lysander with such speed that the latter couldn't react.

A claw appeared around Lysander's throat, the Dragon Emperor's claw glowing with dark runes.

All the land for tens of thousands of kilometers collapsed as Lysander was slammed into the ground.

Pyrothos stood above the Crystal Dragon arrogantly, drawing blood as he pressed the latter's head into the ground.

The Dragon Emperor snarled, sulfur and plumes of black smoke emitting from the sides of his maw. His one foggy black eye and one crimson pupil flickered with malice as he bent down, pressing into Lysander harder.

Lysander seemed to have given up, until he heard a familiar roar that made his expression change.

ROAR!

Another beam of red light shot through the skies. A slimmer Fire Dragon suddenly appeared, reflecting like a polished gem in the skies. Its two crimson irises erupted with flames when it saw the scene before it.

"Veridia, no!" Lysander suddenly roared.

"How dare you humiliate my husband?!"

The beam of red suddenly accelerated, a tail whipping down from the skies and ripping into one of Pyrothos' wings. No... rather, it hooked into one of the many rips, but it seemed entirely incapable of making the hole any larger than it was, a shocking realization considering the speed and ferocity of the sudden assault.

Pyrothos stumbled to the side. Veridia had chosen a method to best dislodge the Dragon Emperor from her husband without allowing the former to harm him any further, but it unfortunately wasn't the method that attacked with the greatest strength.

The Dragon Emperor recovered quickly and his rage, which had been slowly settling down, flared up again in huge rolling waves.

He rose to his full height, his long neck stretching into the skies and his four limbs anchoring into the ground with such fierceness that the shattered, quaking ground suddenly solidified... However, this only lasted for a small moment before the cracks erupted with pillars of magma.

A heart-harrowing laughter rumbled through the skies.

Veridia flapped her wings, her gaze blazing, quite literally. Flames erupted all across her body, dancing upon her ruby scales and reflecting like fire on glass.

"It seems that I have been too lenient."

"Pyrothos." Lysander rose to his feet, his gaze filled with sternness. "I've already said that I only came to escort my daughter and son-in-law. I will be returning now."

Veridia was shaken somewhat when she heard the words "son-in-law". Pyrothos, however, didn't seem to have heard anything.

BANG!

The enormous Pyrothos somehow vanished in a blink, appearing before Veridia in an instant.

"Veridia!"

Lysander's eyes bulged and he shot forward in an attempt to stop what was happening. His mind rolled with methods of diffusing the situation, but by the time he tossed away several ideas, it had already happened.

Pyrothos ripped five claws into Veridia's chest, pressing her down to the ground and biting down.

A mournful roar echoed through the skies as Pyrothos bit into one of Veridia's gorgeous wings, ripping to the side.

A sickening tearing sound echoed along with an equally sickening crush. Skin and bone were shorn as Veridia's entire wing was ripped away.

Blood flowed in rivers.

"STOP!"

Pyrothos didn't seem to have heard anything. His claw raised into the skies, one pressing down into Veridia's chest and the other glowing with an eerie black light.

Lysander landed heavily by the two dragons, his eyes struggling.

"Please, this is enough-"

Pyrothos' claw ripped into Veridia's face, taking both of her eyes and shredding apart her beautiful, reflective scales.

As though he wasn't satisfied with this alone, the claw that had been in Veridia's chest was pulled out and suddenly ripped her jaw open, crushing the bones in her lower maw as his second claw ripped into her mouth.

"This foul tongue, I'll be taking it as well."

Veridia's tongue was torn out and much of her throat was burnt through. Even if she wanted to make a sound, it would be nigh impossible.

Lysander's eyes bulged, his crystalline eyes reddening. His entire body flexed and the world trembled before it suddenly became eerily still almost as though it had been forcefully stabilized.

Pyrothos snorted, billowing ash of black coming from his nostrils and spilling over Veridia's half-dead form.

He pushed off her body and launched himself into the skies, not even looking back at Lysander who remained unmoving from start to finish.

...

In the distance, Ryu watched this scene in silence. He had been sent so far away by Lysander that if not for their sheer size and his Heavenly Pupils, seeing across such a distance would have been impossible.

His gaze didn't carry coldness, nor did it carry indifference. And, as he stood there, holding onto Selheira so that she wouldn't rush off, he seemed to understand something. It was all so insignificant, so small, and yet the consequences had somehow become so drastic...

He burned the image of the Dragon Emperor into his mind.