The Elder Dragon Awakens (4/4)
The second the Queen is burnt to ash beneath his palm, Dakka feels her death, and he's understandably shocked.
'Did I overestimate how much mana she has? Did she run out already? Did I… just kill her…? No… I KILLED HER! NOOOOOOO!!!"
Feeling utterly enraged and guilty, smoke starts billowing out of his mouth, though with him being completely submerged in hot, liquid rock, this only makes giant bubbles of air, which instantly shoot to the top and pop at the surface.
Still, the smoke reaches the top, and it's released into the air above the surface.
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The Queen watches from her new body atop the Threshold walls for any signs of Dakka.
Almost immediately, she finds the deep pit that Dakka had shoved her into. There, she sees a thick plume of black smoke start rising out of the pit as if it were the entrance to some deep hell.
Then, the Queen feels the earth tremor in anticipation before the ground across the entire war zone starts rippling like the sea and burning red hot.
Abruptly, like a super volcano erupting, the entire earth seems to explode, and red lava starts spewing into the air in random places.
The Queen quickly ducks behind cover in order to avoid the lava arcing down from the sky, and the huge boulders pummeling the Threshold from beneath.
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After several minutes, Dakka feels a little tired from throwing his temper tantrum. Feeling exhausted is uncomfortable for him, so he slowly releases the restriction he'd placed on his power.
Slowly, his body elongates, his muscles grow thicker, and his horns grow longer as he resumes the original size that Das had granted him earlier.
Now, Dakka no longer looks like a baby 6-horned dragon, but a true Elder Dragon.
Feeling defeated and empty, now that he's lost the Ant Queen, he slowly crawls back up the hole he'd made.
Because his neck and tail is now so thick compared to the hole, his movements are more akin to slithering than crawling, since he has to have his wings and claws tucked in tight against his torso as he travels back up.
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Coincidentally, one of the Ants the Queen had haphazardly dropped during the battle had survived on the molten hot ground by reviving on a boulder, which happened to be made of a harder mineral than anywhere else on the battlefield.
The poor little girl had barely gained consciousness just in time to see the ground around her turning into "really hot, red water".
She then saw her countless sisters around her burn to death, while she could only watch.
Then, the little Ant child looks to her side, where a great tower of black smoke rises from a deep pit.
There, the child is resting on her knees in her humanoid form, and her face is in blank and empty, as she doesn't even understand why all this scary stuff is happening.
As the Ant child is completely fixated on the hole, she sees what looks like a giant, pointed mountain rise from the hole.
In reality, the "mountain" is Dakka's snout.
To her, when she sees the dragon's mouth open, she thinks that the mountain is being split in half.
Being unable to understand what's going on, the Ant starts crying in fear. Aren't mountains supposed to be mountains? Don't mountains stay still?
She gets freaked out even more when the dragon opens his slitted eyes and looks at her.
From her point of view, she just sees a giant gold and red orb light up on the "mountain".
Did the sun get plucked out of the sky? Was it somehow stuck on the splitting mountain as an ornament?
The Ant gets even more confused and frightened when the mountaintop rises higher and higher into the air, until she realizes that the mountain is connected to the end of a snake-like neck, which rises from the hole and slowly turns towards her.
The young Ant doesn't really have time to keep being fixated on this weird monster with pointy teeth, since she realizes that the rock she's resting on is constantly being melted, and she's slowly sinking into the magma. Plus, she's coughing painfully, as the black smoke and lack of air are making it hard for her to breathe.
The child still has memories of her sisters screaming in pain and fear as they were swallowed by the lava and explosions. With her situation, she knows that she's about to suffer a similar fate.
Now, the child throws her back on the rock and starts rolling around, sobbing intensely and wetting the boulder with her tears. "Mom! Save me!"
Who's mother again?
In the midst of her hysterics, the scaled leviathan reaches forward with one of his clawed hands, and he delicately puts the tip of one of his sharp claws in front of the girl.
With a delicate gentleness unbefitting such a huge creature, the beast slowly moves his sharp claw along the ground and scoops the little girl up from the burning boulder.
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Holding the little Ant child in his open palm, Dakka can't help but have a soft feeling in his heart.
He knows this child isn't the Queen, but seeing that she has the same face, he can't bear to leave her there to burn to death – especially with the way she was pitifully crying for help.
Plus, Dakka knows that it's his fault that this child is in so much pain right now; after having just lost her mother, she must be feeling lost.
Dakka then leans back and balances on his hind legs and his tail propped behind him. With his 2 hands free now, he cups his hands over the Ant child, and he Wills the Air elementals to make the air fresh and breathable for her.
Indeed, now that he's 6-horned dragon now, he doesn't have to transform into a humanoid thing just so that he can use complicated spells to command the Elementals. All he needs to do is WANT them to do something, and they'll sense his desire.
Once all the air is cleaned and breathable again, Dakka uncups his hands, and he sees the Ant child laying calmly on his palm… and she's staring into his eyes.
Seeing her look at him so calmly makes Dakka really happy for some reason, and out of impulse, he raises her up and sets her atop his head, which is propped so high that he can nearly look straight at the sky fortress.
The sky fortress (Valor Hall) was placed well above the Threshold's mountain… so Dakka's true height is well higher than a mountain.
Once the child is safely on his head, he rolls his eyes up to look at the child, and he sees her clinging onto one of his ridged horns.
"Ah…," he rumbles in his heart, "This is why grandfather always loves picking up children and holding them. It feels good."
As a dragon, Dakka was always taught growing up that it was always important to be in touch with his instincts… and dragons have strong instincts to protect the young.
"I-it's hot!" comes a shrill voice from above.
Dakka looks up and sees that his scales are still hot with the thick humming of magic innate to his body, so the child up there is crying in pain as her knees are being cooked and her clothes are on the verge of lighting on fire.
Feeling ashamed of himself, Dakka immediately drops his body strengthening magic and natural mana shields. In fact, he pulls away all the magic placed around his head.
The moment he does this… he suddenly feels an immense well of power appear atop his head.
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The Queen, of course, doesn't fail to notice that her enemy's defenses are down on his head now.
Seeing that one of her children is placed conveniently over this weak spot, she immediately slits her own throat and revives atop his head.
Knowing that she doesn't have time to cast a proper spell, she puts her hands on the top of his unprotected skull and unleashes the largest mana blast she's ever made in her life.
The bright flash from her attack blinds her, and huge clouds of hot steam erupt from the dragon's scales.
She hears a loud, painful grunt escape from the dragon's clenched mouth, and the Queen expects Dakka's towering head to teeter and fall. Out of instinct, she braces herself against his horn as she anticipates a long fall.
But… her expectations didn't match reality.
Perhaps, if Dakka had still been in his smaller "infant elder dragon" form, his unprotected head would've been blown off.
Instead, Dakka merely feels the top of his head bruise a little.
Seeing the dragon's slitted eyes roll up and look deeply at the Queen, she finally feels true despair.