Chapter 1020 Takeover
The 'meteor' reached the ground first and immediately left the spot where the Black Dragon would be dropping down.
Bell approached the rest of the group with his partially burnt armor and clothes. But before he could say anything, Finn started first with a frown, "I thought we agreed that Ais would have to be the one who gives the finishing blow?"
"I apologize, but I can't let it escape and cause harm somewhere else." Bell briefly retorted and didn't back down from his pressure. In fact, he was able to easily push Finn's pressure away thanks to the Black Dragon dropping behind him with a loud thud.
Finn clicked his tongue but couldn't say anything back. They indeed agreed that Ais would take the last shot but that's only because a strange man warned them that she has to do so and hinted that they'll face some unknown consequence if not. Truthfully speaking, those claims are dubious at most, and worst of all, Loki and Aria didn't tell them anything about this and only said that they'll leave the final decision to them.
And if he were to choose something, he'll take the sure subjugation of the Black Dragon over Ais taking the last shot.
Finn sighed and was about to issue a retreat order when Bell suddenly continued his words with a frown, "Is what I'd like to say... But that thing isn't dead yet."
Bell then turned around with arcs of lightning once again emerging from his skin. As they followed his gaze, they saw the unmoving Black Dragon start bubbling as if its scale started to boil over.
"W-what's happening?" Lefiya asked in a panicked voice. Although she's relatively fine, she's already spent and that's the same for most of them.
When they saw that the Black Dragon started melting and seeping through the broken pavement, Tenestra shouted while preparing her attack spell, "It's still trying to escape! Attack it now!"
Soon a barrage of Magic Attack bombarded the Black Dragon but it continued to seep through the ground.
"Dammit!" Tsubaki cursed and brought out her remaining assorted Magic Swords to break the ground it was trying to escape to, though in hindsight, that only made it worse for everyone as that only created a smokescreen of dust and debris.
The elite team kept attacking the spot where the Black Dragon is and has no intention of stopping until it was obliterated forever, but at some point, the small White and Gold Dragon that accompanied them didn't participate in the battle because her sole role was to watch Ais, suddenly let out a cry full of worry and panic.
"Lysa!?" Tiona hurriedly turned around, "What's happening!?"
However, she and the rest didn't need an answer from the Dragon when they saw Ais blankly staring at nothing and unmoving. The lights in her eyes already disappeared, being replaced by these lifeless ones as a black dot unknowingly emerged on her forehead. Lysa was roaring on top of Ais's head trying to wake her 'mother' up but to no avail.
Tiona and Tione went towards Ais' side since both of them couldn't really attack effectively and also tried waking her up, "Ais! What's going on? Answer me!" Tiona started shaking her shoulders but Ais kept unresponsive.
Seeing this, Asfi recalled the vague warning she received from Hermes about the danger that Ais posed, "Someone retreat with Ais Wallenstein and have Line Arshe look at her!"
Nobody knew what's going on, but Asfi's suggestion was a good idea.
Unfortunately, before Tiona could swipe Ais away and bring her back to Melen, black goo with a very dreadful aura suddenly erupted under Ais' feet, pushing away Tiona, Tione, and Lysa before engulfing Ais in this thick layer of goo.
"Wha-!?" Tione and Tiona were very surprised but immediately sprung into action by grabbing the goo with their bare hands and throwing it away in an attempt to free Ais from this very familiar substance. Nevertheless, it wasn't so easy as each time they touched the goo, their hands would be burned by the concentrated amount of the poisonous curse that the Black Dragon had. And even though they could remove a portion of it, the goo still returned to Ais, and more of it was coming out of the ground, completely negating all of their efforts and driving Ais deeper into this black goo.
"No, no, no!!!" The Amazoness sisters cried out in panic as others came to their rescue when they realized that the Black Dragon had already left its spot and was probably the one that was attacking the defenseless Ais right now.
Soon, just grabbing the goo wasn't doing it anymore since it began to solidify and form a giant black egg with Ais inside it.
The panicking members of the Loki Familia couldn't do anything but watch this unfold, but the members of the Freya Familia, they couldn't care less and Allen directly brandished his spear and Ottar swung his war hammer at the egg without any hesitation.
Tiona and Tione brought out their weapons and blocked Ottar's hammer while Bete also jumped against Allen and deflected his spear. All of them had furious expressions, "What are you doing!!?" Yelled the Werewolf at the top of his throat.
"You heard what Zeus said last night. The Spirit Aria was devoured and taken over by the Black Dragon and we can all see that this is what's happening right now." Allen answered in a calmer voice but there was an intensity behind it.
Ottar had the same thing in mind when he took action.
"We... We're not yet sure if that's the case!" Lefiya retorted from the distance, "We have to separate her from this black substance!"
"And how do you suggest we do that?" The silver-haired Dark Elf, Hogni, stepped out, "Isn't taking action and breaking that 'egg' the fastest and most sensible way we could do it?"
Finn and Gareth also agreed but they couldn't honestly go through it and attack the egg since they didn't have the same carelessness as the members of the Freya Familia, 'And I can't just make this a Loki Familia problem since the Black Dragon is involved... Is this what that man was warning us about?' thought the former while biting on his thumb nail.
Bell, on the other hand, was feeling a bit guilty because this could be technically because he landed the finishing move on the Black Dragon and caused it to act this way.
All of a sudden, Shakti raised her voice, "Stop arguing! Nothing would be done if we don't agree on something so instead of clashing, let's think of what we should do! And if there's someone who could help, it'll probably be them!" She then pointed towards the sky where Serafall and the Deities she's guarding approached the group.
Serafall and the Deities landed and all heard and saw what was happening. While only Zeus and Hermes knew what was really going on, they only had a guess as to what a solution could be. Serafall, meanwhile, immediately dismissed Shakti's words, "What are you talking about? I'm only here to watch the show closer~!"
"W-what?" Lefiya let out a dumbfounded voice and everyone else had the same reaction as her, wondering what else the 'show' is.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the 'show' revealed itself to them without them being able to do anything.
The egg first started cracking before the black shell was blasted through by a monstrous arm covered in black scales and had long and terrifying claws. Next was a pair of black wings spreading out of the shell before a black tail punctured outwards.
As the shell collapsed into pieces and onto the ground, the elite team could only stand frozen when they saw Ais with black hair, red eyes, sharp teeth, a pair of black wings, a tail, transformed Draconic limbs, and finally black scales that dotted her whole body. There was no reason that could be seen on Ais' face but only that it was warped in rage.
"GRAAAHHHHH!!!!!"
Only after she let out a roar that was most certainly impossible for her throat that everyone realized that it was already too late.
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