Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls

Chapter 557: A emotionally jealous mother

Elion remained silent after Nidhogg’s last sentence, but it was a different kind of silence now. It was no longer the menacing silence of someone about to explode a continent from accumulated emotional stress. It was worse. It was the sullen silence of a woman who had completely lost control of the situation within her own home.

She slowly twirled the empty goblet between her fingers as she watched the two of them sitting side by side on the library sofa. The low fire in the fireplace partially illuminated her face, highlighting the slight, irritated movement of her eyebrow whenever Nidhogg came even slightly closer to Kael.

And Nidhogg noticed this immediately.

Of course she noticed.

The primordial dragoness could traverse dimensions, sense distortions in the soul, and recognize microscopic changes in ambient mana. Detecting jealousy in Elion was probably the easiest part of the entire night.

The problem was that Nidhogg possessed the emotional maturity of an extremely powerful ancestral entity that had never learned to avoid unnecessary provocations.

In other words: none.

She slowly slid closer to Kael on the couch.

It was a small movement. Subtle. But completely purposeful.

Elion immediately narrowed his eyes.

Kael noticed this and sighed before the tragedy even began.

"Nidhogg."

"Yes?"

"No."

"No what?"

"Whatever you’re planning."

The dragoness seemed genuinely innocent.

"I’m not planning anything."

Elion let out a dry laugh from across the room.

"That sentence alone should be considered a dimensional threat."

Nidhogg completely ignored the comment. Instead, he slowly rested his head on Kael’s shoulder while observing Elion with a lazy and dangerously satisfied look.

"You’re very angry."

"Brilliant observation."

"Doesn’t look angry."

Elion slowly raised an eyebrow.

"Keep talking. I’m curious to see how far your suicidal courage will go."

Kael partially covered her face with her hand.

"Nidhogg..."

But she continued anyway.

"It seems like jealousy."

The silence that followed that sentence was so absolute that even the fire in the fireplace seemed to diminish in intensity.

Kael closed her eyes immediately.

Because now someone would definitely die.

Elion remained motionless for three full seconds.

Then she slowly placed the empty goblet on a small table beside her.

"Jealousy," she repeated calmly.

Nidhogg nodded without any sign of fear.

"Yes."

"Of what exactly?"

The dragoness tilted her head slightly.

"Of the fact that he likes me more now."

Kael immediately turned his face towards her with an expression of pure, tired shock.

"You chose violence."

"She started it."

"You’ve existed for thousands of years." He pointed slowly at her. "More maturity was expected."

"I’m emotionally fulfilled." Nidhogg replied without hesitation. "That makes me provocative."

Elion took a deep breath.

Very deeply.

Mana began to vibrate slightly around the library.

The runes hidden on the shelves reacted instantly, glowing a faint gold like defensive mechanisms sensing imminent risk of architectural destruction.

"I’m not jealous," Elion said finally.

"Of course you are."

"I’m not."

"You clearly are."

"I’m angry because a primordial dragon decided to corrupt my son."

Nidhogg smiled slowly.

"Technically it was mutual."

"I’ll rip your ribs out."

"Romantic promises don’t work on me."

Kael slowly massaged his forehead.

"This is getting worse."

"Do you think so?" Elion replied without taking his eyes off Nidhogg.

The dragoness then made the ultimate mistake.

She slowly grasped one of Kael’s hands.

And intertwined her fingers with his.

It was an absurdly simple gesture.

Almost innocent.

But completely fatal in that specific situation.

The golden glint in Elion’s eyes instantly intensified.

Runes appeared on the ground.

Many runes.

A gigantic magic circle appeared directly beneath Nidhogg’s feet with a dry rumble of compressed mana.

Kael’s eyes widened.

"No—"

The dragoness vanished.

Instantly.

The library fell silent.

Kael stared at the empty space beside him for a few seconds.

Then he slowly turned his face to his mother.

"...You teleported her."

"I eliminated the problem temporarily."

"Where did she go?"

"Elion crossed his arms."

"Inside a volcano."

Kael blinked slowly.

"...Mom."

"What?"

"That sounds extreme."

"She implied I was jealous."

"You literally were."

"Kael."

"Fair enough."

The silence lasted exactly four seconds.

Then a spatial rift opened in the middle of the library.

Without warning.

Without ritual.

Without any healthy dimensional stability.

Kael immediately saw the other side.

Lava.

Volcanic mountains.

Entire rivers of magma cascading down black rocks while red smoke filled a sky broken by golden lightning.

And in the middle of that absolute hell—

Nidhogg.

She walked calmly on liquid lava while wiping her shoulder like someone removing dust after a long walk.

Part of her silver hair was singed.

She looked annoyingly comfortable.

The dragoness looked through the crack directly at Elion before sighing.

"Nice try," she said calmly while removing some molten lava from her own tail. "I’m immune to fire."

Elion narrowed his eyes.

"Unfortunately."

Nidhogg crossed the dimensional rift without any difficulty and returned to the library like someone returning from a brief and inconvenient vacation.

The wooden floor steamed slightly beneath her bare feet, still covered in magma.

She walked to the sofa.

She sat right next to Kael again.

And then rested her head on his shoulder with an offensive level of dramatization.

"Love," she said in an absurdly sweet voice. "Your mother wants to destroy our deep love."

Kael stared blankly.

Because at that moment he understood something important.

There was no mortal or divine force capable of preventing this situation from worsening.

Elion finally lost his patience.

Mana exploded throughout the entire library.

The windows trembled.

Books fell from the shelves.

The chandelier above them spun violently as dozens of magic circles simultaneously appeared around the room.

"Enough." The word echoed like a physical command.

Kael immediately raised his head.

"Mother, wait—"

Too late.

The magic circle appeared directly beneath them this time.

Much larger.

Much more complex.

Nidhogg smiled slowly.

"Oh. Now it’s interesting."

The library vanished.

The world disappeared.

Kael felt the ground disappear beneath his body.

The impact of the dimensional shift was brutal. The air was ripped from his lungs before he could even comprehend what had happened.

Then came the wind.

Violent.

Deafening.

Kael opened his eyes and immediately realized they were falling.

Very high.

Absurdly and stupidly high.

The sky above them was dark and deep blue, pierced by gigantic clouds illuminated by distant lightning. Below, the world seemed too small to exist. Huge mountains pierced through layers of mist while oceans reflected the moonlight like shattered mirrors.

Kael tried to breathe.

He couldn’t.

The wind violently crushed his chest while the pressure of the fall destroyed any rational attempt at mental organization.

Beside him, Nidhogg spun slowly in the air, her silvery hair being swept away by the atmospheric storm.

And she seemed perfectly calm.

Of course she did.

She watched Kael desperately trying to catch his breath and tilted her head slightly.

"She really got offended."

Kael pointed furiously downwards as he tried to breathe.

"We’re—"

The wind cut off the rest of the sentence.

Nidhogg looked at the horizon.

"Ah." She seemed thoughtful. "We’re falling from the suspended continent."

Kael’s eyes widened immediately.

The suspended continent.

He knew that place.

Or rather: he knew stories about that place.

A continental mass floating thousands of kilometers above sea level, held in the sky by ancient gravitational magic. Very few people even got close to it without dying in the process.

And now they were falling from it.

"TOO FAR!" Kael finally managed to shout.

Nidhogg nodded calmly.

"Yes."

"DO SOMETHING!"

"You’re panicking."

"WE’RE FALLING OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE!"

"Technically, we’ve already left the main atmosphere."

Kael stared at her in utter horror.

Then he realized something else.

She wasn’t falling.

Or rather—

She was shrinking.

Her body slowly began to emit a golden glow as scales appeared on her arms and neck. The pressure around her mana increased violently.

Nidhogg sighed.

"She really overdid it this time."

Then he looked directly at Kael. "Do you trust me?"

Kael looked at the absurdly distant ground.

Then at her.

Then back at the ground.

"...Unfortunately, yes."

The smile that appeared on her face was genuinely happy.

Then the reality around them cracked.

Nidhogg’s body exploded in golden light.

There was no other word for it.

Her human form simply ceased to exist as primordial mana expanded across the sky like a living storm. Kael felt the overwhelming pressure of something colossal surging around him.

Scales.

Wings.

Enormous golden eyes piercing through the clouds.

The dragon emerged amidst the fall like an ancient calamity awakening within the storm itself.

Kael almost stopped thinking completely.

Because her true form was absurd.

Gigantic beyond any sound logic.

The wings opened violently, destroying entire clouds around them in an explosion of compressed wind. The impact slowed the fall instantly.

Kael felt his body being pulled by the air before something enormous carefully enveloped him.

Claws.

Large enough to crush walls.

But holding him with impossible delicacy.

Nidhogg’s voice reverberated across the entire sky.

"Better this way."

Kael remained completely still within her clutches as he tried to process the sheer size of the creature flying around him.

Down below, oceans seemed small.

Mountains looked like toys.

Nidhogg’s body pierced through storms as if they simply didn’t matter.

And then Kael began to laugh.

First softly.

Then louder.

Because the whole situation had completely surpassed the limits of absurdity.

His mother had teleported him and a primordial dragon into an atmospheric drop out of jealousy.

Nidhogg tilted its gigantic head slightly toward him.

"Did you hit your head?"

Kael continued laughing as he finally managed to breathe normally again.

"My life has become a mental illness."

"That was before me."

"You’ve gotten much worse."

"Probably."

The dragon began to glide slowly through the clouds as golden lightning streaked across the sky around them.

High above the mountains.

Far above the oceans.

Far from the library.

And probably—

Far from Elion’s remaining patience as well.