Lord Heike doesn't understand who Lady Daisy is talking about. "Who are Shé? Can we prevent their portal from getting completed?"
Lady Daisy responds with a concerned expression. "Shé... it's complicated. They are a dynasty of dragons separated from the Tiankong Dynasty by Aisha, the Dragon Queen of Life after her mother's be murdered."
Before she can answer his second question, the fire circle hits the magic barrier of the mages in Petra's main square and destroys it before hitting the ground and creating a big fire explosion.
It's possible to get an idea of the explosion radius even though Heike's castle is a mile away from the square, but he can't exactly see what's going on there.
"DAMN!!!" Heike gets really worried. He was never interested in the stories that Daisy told their daughter, and now he regrets it. "Dragons? Didn't you say that they are a superior race and that those races have no interest in inferior worlds like Argerim?"Daisy also seems perplexed about that. "It makes no sense for them to be interested in medium and inferior worlds unless... there is a crystal mine in them."
Before Heike asks about the mine, Daisy thinks out loud. "But I explored this world... there was no crystal mine here. Also, the people of the western continent are slightly weaker than our people. I would have realized if someone had found mystic crystals."
Heike has no patience for Daisy's complex reflections. He starts walking towards the room door. "I cannot stand still without doing anything; I will defend my people."
But before he can take more than two steps, Daisy's body turns into a cloud of dust and flies in front of him in a second. Then the dust cloud becomes Daisy's normal body again, and she pushes him into an armchair.
Heike feels like a sick child being dominated by a robust adult. The difference in power between him and Daisy is absurdly extensive, and it does nothing good for his ego as a man and husband.
But what can he do? He loves his beautiful wife as much as their cute daughter. A perfect family, indeed, and being weaker than Daisy just makes her look even more incredible, which makes him proud because he is the only man for her.
Daisy continues to think of a plan while rebuking Heike. "Are you crazy? We can't face them that easily... Those dragons known as Shé are very different from the other Dragonic Dynasties.""But-" Heike tries to get up, but Daisy presses his groin with her foot.
"Listen to me, Heike. While dragons usually prefer fair and glorious battles, Shé attack only preys much weaker than themselves." Daisy explains.
She continues. "Dragons usually colonize other planets and make their people good servants, giving them protection in exchange for work..."
"But the Shé look for medium and inferior worlds with low resistance and then drain everything of them until they leave no stone unturned." She finishes.
Heike understands that the situation is really bad, but they have to fight, right? "You are still so strong, my love... is there no chance of winning if we attack quickly and take them off guard?"
Daisy makes a thoughtful expression. "I'm not sure... their group shouldn't have warriors above the Sky Realm, but I've already lost more than half of my original power since I got hurt."
Before Heike can say anything, Daisy shakes her head. "No... Even if I had my original power, their group would probably still have hundreds of warriors from Mortal and Earth Realms, with one or a few of them being in the late stages of the Earth Realm. There's no way we can beat a group like that without many powerful warriors too."
"But Romero, me, and-" Heike really doesn't want to abandon his peoples, mainly because he and Daisy have the trust of the people more than the King of Camblea Kingdom himself.
Daisy makes a sorry expression. "Sorry, Heike. I know how important your home is to you, but what do we have? Ten early-stage Mortal Realm warriors and you? I can still fight someone from the early Earth Realm, but it's just that. A thousand, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of Zero Realm soldiers would die instantly by the dragon fire spells."
Haike makes a determined expression. "Then we would die fighting! Our people always fought and died fighting."
Daisy makes a severe expression and moves her delicate hand in the direction of Heike's head. Then layers of stone appear around her arm, creating something like a stone gauntlet.
She uses that gauntlet to squeeze the arm of the chair while speaking seriously. "Do you remember what I said when I agreed to marry you?!"
Before Heike can say anything, Daisy answers her own question. "I said I wasn't doing that because I was looking for a good husband, but a good father to my children."
"I know-" Heike respond.
But Daisy continues with her usual arrogant and dominating attitude. "You told me that you would be the best father for our children, but now, do you want to run toward an already loose battle and make our daughter an orphan?"
When Heike thinks of the face of his beautiful little princess, his heart goes soft. He gets up and strokes Daisy's face. "You are right, my love. I have to do the best for our family first."
Daisy smiles in relief. She can't even imagine what it would be like for her daughter to lose her father. "So, let's go."
Heike makes a confused expression again. "What are we going to do? Are we going to run away? You said you didn't have the resources to make a portal to another world anymore."
"We are going to meet with our daughter on the west continent and seek help from an old friend. She is not strong enough to beat an assault group of Shé alone, but together we will be able to defend ourselves and plan something." Daisy explains.
"Okay," Heike nods. "Are we going on a ship? Can we take some servants and friends with us?"
Daisy shakes her head. "We don't have time for it; it's too risky."
"I understand..." Heike can't help but be sad. He never thought he would run away from his home in that shameful way.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
As soon as the door is heard, a maid quickly enters the room. "Lady Daisy; Lord Heike, I'm sorry to come in like this, but I have to warn you of something important. There is fire and screaming around the city... so much chaos."
While Heike is silent, Daisy approaches the maid. "You served me well for so many years... I'm sorry, but I can't take you with me."
"Are you leaving? But what will be of Camblea without you? The King alone cannot protect our people..." The maid makes a desperate expression.
Daisy takes a bottle of the green liquid from her storage ring and puts it in the maid's hand. "Run away from the city with your family, and maybe you can live for a little while longer. But if someone looking like a lizardman with red scales finds you, drink this. A quick death is better than anything they can give you."
"Thank you, my Lady. You are the best boss a servant could work for." The maid doesn't even think about doubting Daisy's words and runs to warn her family.
Daisy walks towards Heike and extends a hand to him. He takes her hand, and an oval stone barrier begins to form around them while Daisy levitates them both towards the window.
She points her palm at the window, which opens for her and Heike to float towards the sky as the oval barrier grows, slowly covering their bodies.
But before the stone 'cocoon' covers the entire bodies of Heike and Daisy so that she can fly towards the west sea at high speed, they both look at the of Petra, burning.
Heike is shocked by the damage caused by the Shé dragons in such a short time. "A minute? Maybe not even that, and they are already destroying the city. Why?! What have we done to them?!?!"
Daisy shakes her head. "It can't be helped. They are dishonest predators with an extreme thirst for blood and power. Also, this is how things work in the universe: the strong crush the weak. Most of the time, without any specific reason, besides wanting to use the preys' bodies to become even stronger and ensure that their people are the only dominant."
"I see..." Heike understands that as it is how the people of Freelands live since ever.
Still, it is bizarre to see the warriors of the S and SS ranks that he considered so strong being crushed into meat paste so easily by the Shé dragons.
They are as Daisy described: they look like the lizard man Lucien killed, Klaus; however, they are not lizards, but dragons, with hard red scales covering their skin and horns coming from the top of their heads, unlike the demons, who usually have their horns coming from the up forehead.
Without wings, the Shé dragons have a large thick tail, similar to Pride's. In fact, she is a little similar to them.
But the dragon has skin tones that vary from red to yellow, and their eyes are slightly stretched and thin.
Their armor has a similar texture to their scales, and most use spears as their main weapon while carrying daggers and swords as well.
Heike is impressed by the strength and agility of the dragons that jump distances greater than a hundred meters and make attacks that kill several of the best warriors in Petra at the same time.
When the pain in his heart seems to be very intense, his vision is covered by the oval stone barrier. Heike looks to the side and sees the beautiful face of his beloved wife. "Let's get out of here."
"Mm." Daisy prepares to launch the stone 'cocoon' towards the sea while the last part of the barrier is finished.
But then she sees another magical circle appearing in the sky. This time it is not fire but has a watery appearance.
"Who???" Daisy is perplexed, while she has no idea who will be coming from that standard portal.
On the ground, one of the biggest men from the group of a thousand dragons holds the head of a young human with just one hand, while his long, sharp claws slowly pierce into the poor man's flesh and bones.
"Where's the mine?" The dragon asks in dragonic language.
"Aaaarhhh... what???" The man moans as he does not understand the language the dragon speaks.
The dragon laughs. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to use your inferior language."
Before the man can say anything, the dragon smashes his head, creating an explosion of blood and brain pieces that fly everywhere.
"Well, who's next?" The dragon looks sideways for his next victim but then realizes that other dragons are looking up at the sky.
"Marik! Look, someone else is coming for the mine." One of the other dragons speaks to the big dragon named Marik.
Marik smiles widely, showing his teeth that resemble a snake's fangs. "Whatever they are, we will kill too."
The other dragon also laughs. "Hehehehe..."
