Several miles from the Mist Battlefield.
The black giant python that had once stood tall above the clouds with its head held high had now gone limp. Holes covered its body, leaking dark winds. Once all the dark wind within it had drained away, even if Toby had not shattered its elemental core, it would still need a long time to recover.
What was more, the pitch-black elemental core within the gaping wound in its abdomen had already been exposed before Toby.
The firelight was reflected in the python's bewildered vertical pupils.
It had never imagined that it would merely follow Lord Harriken's orders to reclaim Feiwat, only for it to become the end of its own road.
As it watched the griffin spew forth surging flames toward its dark core, despair filled the python's eyes. It knew that the instant the flames touched its elemental core, its consciousness would reach its end.
It had considered self-destruction as well, but sixty or seventy percent of the dark wind in its body had already leaked away. The power of its self-destruction had greatly diminished, while the flaming griffin opposite it seemed to have anticipated this long ago and always remained at the safest possible distance.
Such a self-destruction was meaningless.
Forget it. Let it be this way. Welcome the wind's final destination.
At the final moment of its life, a trace of calm finally appeared in the python's eyes.
On the distant Gondola, Anoto, trapped within the Yellow Sand Cage, suddenly began to weep. It turned its head away, unable to bear watching the python perish.
Though this black python was not from the same camp as them, they were, after all, both descendants of the wind. It supported Toby's actions in its heart, yet it could not suppress the sorrow