Scarlet Naga's gaze swept past Wa Master and toward the deeper darkness and the night sky that seemed frozen solid.
She fell silent for a moment. Galaxies seemed to flow within those enormous vertical pupils, or perhaps they merely reflected the firelight on the shattered river.
No one knew what this Ancient Dragon was thinking—whether she was recalling the hazy figure of an old acquaintance or weighing the price of destruction.
After a while, she straightened her ridge-like upper body once more and waved a hand listlessly. "Go."
There was a trace of barely perceptible weariness in her voice—or perhaps a kind of disgust.
"Leave this place and find somewhere safer. The earthquake may affect you somewhat, but there shouldn't be any danger."
She slowly turned her massive body. The muddy waters began to churn uneasily, and that interrupted dance of destruction, resonating with heaven and earth, seemed about to resume.
"Wait!" Wa Master hurriedly called out. Her snake tail tensed instinctively, sending ripples across the shallow water.
Scarlet Naga turned her head slightly and glanced at her with only one enormous vertical pupil. "I can probably guess what you want to say, but mistakes demand a price—they kept me from obtaining something important, so naturally, I will take something important from them."
"Please reconsider!" Wa Master raised her voice. It rang especially clearly across the empty, shattered river. "This will cause an unimaginable disaster! Every force on this land will fight you to the death!"
"So what?" Scarlet Naga's tone remained flat. "Humans and dragons are enemies in the end—Wa may have fallen in love with a human, but that is her business. I will not. Dragons who love others are rare aberrations among us."
There was now a hint of killing intent in her eyes.
A chill shot