Chapter 253 Only The Beginning
Clip!
Clop!
Clip!
The sound of Ayanami's shoes walking down the corridor could be heard. With the dragon scale carefully tucked in her dress, she scouted the area as naturally as she could.
'Come on, work you stupid thing!' She lightly tapped the scale underneath her folds.
She had been walking for several minutes, greeting those who passed by, until she got close to room Apex.
Her movements halted to a stop and went into a panic fit. This was beyond her boundaries and she hoped that they wouldn't magically come out of their rooms.
The mere thought of facing those three scared her to bits. When she had thought she was finally free from them, they just had to butt into her peaceful world in the organization.
'Go back to the slums, where you belong!' She thought with spite.
Turning around to leave, she was shocked when she saw something glowing underneath her dress.
Reaching into her sleeve, she pulled out the scale. Outlining its body was an orange aura that was flickering continuously. 'What the hell is going on?'
She looked back at the rooms in suspicion, wondering if what she had been looking for had been taken by these thieving trash.
As she took a step forward and into their corridor, her leg burned slightly and the flickering stopped. She stared at the scale and was disturbed by the fact that she might have made a mistake and regretted stepping foot in there.
When she turned around to leave, she could see the glow on the scale once more and her head snapped back up. 'It's out there somewhere!'
When she saw a figure dash to the right, she had a smug smile as she deduced this person must be the cause of the glow.
Sprinting in tow, her shape-shifted into a black snake, with the dragon scale being held by a silver collar tag while she slithered away in pursuit.
Watching from above were Obsidian and Lank. They were both laying low on a black mist Obsidian had created. After they were able to mask their presence, it wasn't a surprise that she had not thought she could be watched.
"So gullible." Lank snickered and shook his head.
"That snake stays true to her shape-shifting abilities." Obsidian sneered.
Lank dropped down, wishing that he could go after them. When Obsidian dropped behind him, he shoved his hands into his pocket.
"Let's go create some carnage!"
-----------
A few moments later,
"Stop!" Ayanami called out in a rush when she saw the figure dash out. She wondered if this was just a figment of her imagination.
No matter how she thought of it, the scale couldn't lie, this person either has something in their possession or has a connection to the scale-but who?
She had slithered into a seal-tight room without even noticing it.
Click!
A smoky voice brought to her attention what she had gotten into, "you finally made it. How do you like the new reconstruction?"
As Ayanami looked around her, she realized that this was a room created to morph into a user's thoughts, functioning like a domain.
'You've got to be kidding me!' Ayanami reverted to her original form, her eyes scanning the dark environment. The only source of light was coming from the blue crack-like pattern that branched along the walls.
"Why did you lure me here?" She spat as she rushed to the door in search of its handle.
"Don't bother trying to get out of here, it's pointless and you know that." The voice countered with a snicker.
Something was unsettling in the voice, it almost sounded tuned and made to hide the true mastermind.
She clenched the scale in her hand and could feel the pulse it resonated. This was just about a valid reason that the individual knows what they are dealing with.
"Show yourselves!" She hissed, standing her ground and glaring above from where the voice came from.
All she could hear were cackles of laughter in response which irked her by a great length.
"There is only one of me, you vile beast!" The voice snapped.
The ground shook in response to the looming rage. She staggered and lost her balance.
Letting out a hiss, she screeched in pain when she noticed her hand had touched the outline of the cracks and it glowed.
'What the hell is this? Is this a part I had missed in the organization?' She thought with panic as she hurriedly got to her feet so she avoided the pain that it had caused to her skin.
Hidden in the shadows was Nix with Solis serving as a medium for the lighting. He had concentrated his ability on creating penetrative light that could hurt the skin.
Solis glanced over at Nix with a smirk, their main objective was to get the scale in Ayanami's hand, which could only be done when she was distracted or snatched.
With his curiosity about being satisfied, he watched as thick black fog engulfed the environment, spreading across the room with great speed.
Ayanami took several steps back, weary of the mysterious smoke that was about to engulf her. Her hand tightly held onto the scale as her only chance of getting one step closer to her target.
"You would know the gravity of your mistakes." Nix's masked voice snickered as he summoned Raiken.
Raiken had felt offended that one of his scales was used in such a way and considered it a disgrace to his existence.
With his compliance to get back his scale, he was more than pleased to be let out, his large wings spread out as he stretched and dropped to the floor beneath.
Boom!
Ayanami staggered as the floor shook and fell to the ground again, when she pushed back her hair from her face, her jaw dropped upon the sight of the colossal dragon.
She let out a scream in response and pushed back to create a bit distance as she could.
<This is the puny human that has my scale?!> Raiken communicate telepathically to Nix as he snorted down on Ayanami
Ayanami's eyes bulged and her heartbeat quickened at how close she was to a dragon.
"How do you like my best friend? He's actually in need of something of his in your possession!"
Nix held a smirk to a distracted Solis who had his mouth wide open as he was awestruck by the sight, it was a real dragon in front of him and it felt unreal. What made it more magnificent was the fact that Nix could control such a mythical creature.
"He's freaking huge, I thought you said that it was just a few meters high?" Solis hissed in a whisper after he had recovered from his initial shock.
"Isn't that a few meters?" Nix hissed back in a whisper and shook his head.
He turned towards Ayanami with a wicked smirk, 'let the show begin!'
Ayanami was frozen in place as she couldn't understand why a dragon suddenly appeared in the room.
Overcoming her fear, she tried to pin the sight to the room morphing into one of her worst nightmares. She let out a laugh at the thought of whoever had tried to set her up.
"You think this cheap trick scares me?!"
Raiken let out a growl as he glared flames at her, her words felt like a bad itch on his scales, she was downgrading him right before his eyes.
<Remind me why I just need that scale and not also her life as a side bonus?>
Nix almost burst out laughing at Raiken's bad humor. They needed her alive for their second plan to come into fulfillment–without that, all would go up in flames.
"There's no way humans and dragons could coexist!" Ayanami continued as she gave a stare down to the dragon.
<She does have a point, you're just bullying me, human> Raiken snorted in its thought.
'Raiken, do you want your summon to be canceled?' Nix threatened as he was on the verge of carrying it out with another dragon.
<Yes, let the elderly off and bring in the fresh batch. I would gladly rip a few limbs if she dares shapeshift, wouldn't you like that?>
Red beamed with joy at the prospect of being let out.
'Shut it, that snake is with Raiken's scale so it's only fair that he gets his possession back.' Nix countered and folded his arms.
Ayanami, still not taking things seriously anymore, proceeded to walk over to Raiken and examine the authentication of the dragon.
When she observed the scale pattern on its body, her body froze as she slowly brought up the scale in her hand.
Her hand began to tremble as thought back to how Mr. Zhao had kept her in the dark on how he had gotten the scale.
She pushed back and screamed in fear. "No... It can't be."
"Now you believe you slithering devil, well this is only the beginning."