380 A Life Worth Remembering
For a moment, there was only silence, broken only by the crackle of flames.
Then his grief transformed into something sharper… colder. His golden eyes burned with anger as his gaze rose to the sky, where figures hovered, cloaked in a strange energy.
“You!” he roared, his voice shaking the very earth beneath him. His eyes locked onto one figure in particular, a man with silver hair and crimson eyes, so alike yet so different from hers.
“How could you do this? How could you kill your own daughter, you monster?”
The man’s gaze was cold. “She brought shame upon our race,” the man replied, without even a hint of remorse.
“Her actions tainted our bloodline, and I had to rid us of the stain myself.” His lips curled into a faint smile.
“Pity I couldn’t find the child. I would have wiped that abomination from existence as well.”
The dragon prince’s hands clenched into fists, trembling with rage. His heart thundered in his chest, every muscle in his body screaming for vengeance. “You will regret this,” he growled, his voice a low and menacing promise.
The sky seemed to darken, as if the heavens themselves acknowledged the storm that was about to be unleashed.
The hovering figure let out a cold laugh.
His crimson eyes glinted as he shook his head. “This is all your fault, you know.”
“If you had never tainted her, she would never have met this fate. She could have had a bright future—lived the life she deserved. She could have been the pride of our people, the leader she was destined to be. All of that, ruined because of you!”
The dragon froze, his breath catching as the words sank in. Then, slowly, his lips curled into a bitter smile, and a dark chuckle rumbled from his chest.
“Because of me?”
His laughter deepened, dark and hollow, as he raised his golden eyes to the man in the sky.
“Tell me.”
“What did you even know about her? What did you truly know about your daughter?”
The question hung in the air, unanswered, as the dragon stepped forward, the firelight casting shadows across his face.
His voice cracked with emotion as he began to speak, the memories spilling from him like a dam that had finally broken.
“She loved stargazing,” he said, his voice trembling.
“She used to say the stars were the only witnesses that didn’t judge her, the only lights in a world that tried to crush her under its weight. She’d sneak away from your rigid courts and endless expectations, just to lie in the grass and dream of a life far away from it all. She hated the way you groomed her to lead, the way you tried to shape her into some cold, unfeeling ruler. She wanted none of it!”
His golden eyes glistened with unshed tears as he continued.
“She loved sweet wines but couldn’t handle more than a single glass without getting tipsy. She adored the rain and would dance in it, even when the world around her demanded poise and perfection. She hated your courts, your politics, your endless obsession with power. She just wanted to live. A simple life, free from all of that.”
He clenched his fists, his voice breaking.
“And she found that life with me. She smiled with me. She laughed. She was free. But you—”
His voice rose, sharp, his ether rising from his body, but in a far darker hue.
“You couldn’t stand that, could you? You couldn’t stand to see her happy on her own terms. No, she had to be your perfect heir, your shining beacon of Asura pride. And now she’s dead because of it!”
He staggered back as the weight of his grief bore down on him.
“I should have stopped her that day,” he whispered, his voice cracking.
“I should have insisted she stay. I should have silenced those who dared to speak ill of her. Punished those who mistreated her. Killed anyone who dared to raise their hands against her.”
The flames around him roared higher, reflecting the tempest in his soul. His golden eyes burned as he fixed them on the figure above.
“But now I’m here, and she’s gone. She’s no longer at my side. I’m never going to hear her voice again, or see her smile, or feel her hand in mine. All because I let her go. Because I let her walk into the jaws of the monster who called himself her father.”
The dragon’s ether erupted like an inferno, flames of dark gold and white raging from his body as he transformed in a blinding flash.
His towering frame became that of a titanic white and gold dragon, scales shimmering like sunlight. His deep yellow eyes burned with fury, a storm of wrath swirling in their depths.
His voice thundered through the scorched forest, shaking the heavens themselves.
“You’ve robbed me of my greatest treasure. And I never forgive those who take from me!” he roared.
The Asura overlord, hovering above, gritted his teeth in frustration, his crimson eyes narrowing. “Restrain him!” he yelled.
At his command, the other Asura conjured ethereal chains—massive, glowing constructs of binding magic that surged toward the dragon’s colossal body. The chains wrapped tightly around his limbs, neck, and wings, crackling with ether as they attempted to hold him down.
For a brief moment, it seemed as though they had succeeded.
Then, with a deafening roar, the dragon flexed his enormous body.
The chains shattered in an instant, exploding into shards that dissipated into the air. The shockwave from his movement was so immense that the burning forest was flattened in its entirety.
Trees splintered, the ground cracked, and even the sky itself seemed to tremble under the force of his rage.
The Asura were flung backward like leaves in a storm, their overlord barely managing to hold his position.
The dragon’s ether raged like a flame, an aura so fierce it burned all who dared approach. His golden eyes turned toward the Asura overlord, and his voice rumbled.
“A foolish attempt at capture.”
“There is a reason the celestials fear dragons. Why no race dares to go to war with us. Why the heavens darken under our wrath.”
“Allow me to enlighten you, a Dragon’s wrath is all consuming.”