Judge's world had gone quiet with the most comforting and peaceful sleep he had ever got. But in the outside world, hell was breaking loose. The whole city was in a state of unrest. It happened suddenly while the whole family was deciding to go on a trip, though it had been postponed by one day due to Eleyn's request. Now it was a good thing they didn't leave, someone had planned to do this while they were away.
"Judge is safe inside the Phoenix egg, Father," Eleyn said calmly to her father-in-law. Who stood with his sword drawn, his golden eyes fixed on the chaos beyond the mansion. Despite the situation, her voice was steady, though it was clear from the way she clenched her wand that she was ready to torch anyone who dared get too close to her son.
Amber and Liam had gone off to Eleyn's house, which was the royal palace. So she didn't have to worry about both of her other children.
The town was in absolute turmoil. Cultists—who, by all reasonable standards, should have picked an easier target—had decided to try to bring down an entire dragon-built city. These maniacs had been plotting this for years, apparently, and their plan was finally in motion. Fires raged, buildings crumbled, and terrifying ethercraft explosions lit up the sky like it was some sort of twisted holiday celebration's firework show.
Being able to destroy a town built by dragons and guarded by dragons wasn't exactly something you could pull off overnight. These cultists had been meticulous, but they had underestimated the dragons as a species if they thought they could destroy a single one of any dragon's city.
Eleyn was now outside the mansion's walls, with the egg floating close by (yes the one with Judge, imagine being born normally and having to be born again from an egg).
She was clearly not liking the firework display in the least, she was now itching to put on another firework show, but this time with her enemies' heads.
Her fiery ethercraft literally burned the air around her as she watched the chaos unfold. But before she could launch into her usual "scorch first, ask questions later" routine, Melina, the ever-composed elf tutor, hurried towards her, looking more annoyed than frightened, she knew Eleyn well.
"Why is teleporting blocked, is there a principle that blocks it?" Melina asked, her voice tight as she sidestepped a falling chunk of what used to be a dragon statue.
Eleyn sighed as though she were explaining basic arithmetic to a child. "I don't know of such a principle, but!" she began, her words dripping with forced patience, "the cult has set up an anti-teleportation barrier with some artifact. We need to get outside the barrier to escape. Or," she added with a glint in her eye, "we could just destroy the artifact and make this easier for others and let them be at ease."
Melina raised a brow, her fingers twitching ever so slightly as she considered the prospect. Destroying things was kind of her specialty, after all. Her ethercraft wasn't flashy, like Eleyn's.
She didn't throw around fireballs or make the air crackle with raw energy. No, Melina's principle for her signature ethercraft worked on an atomic level, taking apart anything—stone, metal, bone, even ether constructs—piece by microscopic piece, until it was nothing but dust. Still, it wasn't working on living things.
Where Eleyn was a roaring inferno, Melina was quiet devastation. Together, they were about to become the nightmare of these idiotic cultists.
Just as they were about to move, a group of robed cultists appeared at the edge of the courtyard, their leader holding a staff that crackled with dark energy. They looked like they were gearing up for some evil monologue, probably something about how they were going to cleanse the world or ascend to godhood.
Eleyn, however, was not in the mood for speeches. "I'll handle the cannon fodder. You find the artifact," she said to Melina, already summoning flames that danced eagerly at her fingertips. "Let's get this over with."
The cult leader raised his staff and began casting something ominous, but he didn't get very far. Eleyn, who wasn't big on waiting for her enemies to finish their spells, shot a blazing fireball at him so fast that it interrupted his chant mid-sentence. The man didn't even have time to scream before he was engulfed in flames.
That seemed to jolt the other cultists into action. They charged, shouting about their god and their ultimate victory, but Eleyn was already moving. Flames spiraled around her, forming deadly arcs that swept through the courtyard, incinerating anyone who got too close.
Her ethercraft was pure, raw destruction, and yet there was a beauty to how she wielded it, like a dancer commanding the flames in a deadly waltz. Buildings that had stood for centuries would crumble if the fire scorched their foundations, but she kept the destruction controlled, focused only on the enemies before her.
Melina, meanwhile, was the picture of calm efficiency. As the cultists kept pouring in, she walked straight into the chaos, her eyes scanning the battlefield for the artifact. A stone pillar collapsed in her path, but with a flick of her wrist, the entire structure disintegrated into a fine powder. It was as though she had gotten the pass for manipulating matter (Bye-bye science), she was taking apart anything in her way with super precision.
As she moved deeper into the fray, a group of heavily armored cultists blocked her path, their shields glowing with protective wards. They looked confident—after all, these shields were enchanted to withstand most forms of ethercraft.
Unfortunately for them, Melina's ethercraft wasn't "most forms of ethercraft."
She extended her hand toward them, and the air around the shields began to shimmer. For a moment, the cultists stood firm, but then their shields started to crack—not break, but actually crumble, the wards dissolving as if they were made of sand. The cultists' eyes widened in panic, and before they could even react, their armor followed suit, turning to dust around them.
Melina walked past the now very naked and very terrified cultists without so much as a glance. Letting a huge wall fall above them.
Back in the courtyard, Eleyn had turned the place into a fiery inferno, with walls of flame blocking every escape route for the cultists. They were trying to fight back, throwing spells and curses at her, but her fire consumed everything they threw her way. With a smirk, she raised both hands, and the flames roared higher, a dragon-shaped vortex of fire swirling in the air above her. She unleashed it on the remaining cultists, and in seconds, they were nothing more than ash.
"You done playing with them yet?" Melina called from the edge of the courtyard.
"Just about," Eleyn replied, extinguishing the flames with a wave of her hand. "Find the artifact?"
"No... Do you think years of meticulous planning would be just dependent on an artifact? And if it is, do you think it would easy to find?" Melina said as she disintegrated a fiery projectile heading her way.
Just then, a deafening roar shook the ground beneath their feet. Both women looked up to see a massive shadow descending from the sky—a dragon, its scales gleaming in the sunlight, wings blotting out the sky.
Eleyn smirked. "Now that is what I call a dramatic entrance." Ignoring Melina's nagging.