Chronicles of Forgotten Extra Chapter 363: The Human Who Challenged the Dragon Empire.

Falling from the skies above Dragothoria was a hopeless fool. Barely a few minutes had passed since Aemirya had left without a proper goodbye and stepped through the portal while leaving him with a different portal she had opened for herself.

For some reason, Alden had always known that this was how it would end.

Aemirya had many dreams but above all else, she still clung to one final hope. The hope that one day she would be acknowledged and that she would finally become a true dragon in the eyes of her own people.

And then...

She could spread her wings and roam the skies of the world freely and maybe search for what she actually desired.

But Alden had already lived through something similar. He knew exactly how chasing that kind of acknowledgment ended.

His own family had been human. Aemirya’s family was made up of dragons, beings far more arrogant than humans.

So he had already guessed how her story would end. Which was why... While Aemirya stepped through her portal...

He stayed behind.

He manipulated his own mana to prevent the portal she had entered from closing while simultaneously using his Abyssal Soul to swallow the other one whole.

It was magic and it was cast by an Ascendant Rank. So, It fulfilled the conditions required by his Abyssal Soul.

And although it had taken several minutes... He had successfully stored the spell within it ready to use. Once he was done with everything, he jumped through the portal to Dragothoria.

If she truly couldn’t leave voluntarily even if she wanted to...

...then he would simply kidnap her.

Because that way, she would be a victim of a kidnapping and not a criminal who had run away. So even if she was caught... she wouldn’t be punished.

As he fell through the sky, Eclipse mana surged out of his body. This was the first time he was using his first Eclipse spell to its fullest extent.

He could cast it but it was still unstable.

Streams of Eclipse mana gathered behind him, leaving a dark trail with red lightning coiling across it across the heavens as, little by little, its size expanded at an astonishing pace.

He could see Aemirya below, still bound in chains and being dragged away as a smirk spread across his face.

By then, the Eclipse mana had condensed into a massive orb behind him, swallowing the sun itself and casting the entire sky into darkness.

The wind howled against his body as he stretched one hand toward the Dragon Princess while every dragon in the arena stared upward in stunned silence at him and at the artificial eclipse hanging in the heavens behind him.

His grin widened as he announced.

"I, LORD BOOMBOOM, HAVE COME TO KIDNAP YOU, DRAGON PRINCESS!"

Aemirya’s eyes fell upon him as she instinctively bit her lip, immediately understanding the true meaning behind his words.

Her expression became conflicted.

If she took his hand... Everything would change.

She would finally be free, she could search for her father, she could wander the world and more importantly she could live.

And yet...

She also knew what it would cost.

It would drag the only friend she had ever made into even greater trouble. She didn’t know much about him but she knew he already carried burdens of his own and if he truly kidnapped her, every dragon in the empire would hunt him.

His life would become a living hell because of her.

Not to mention...

She didn’t even know how they were supposed to escape a place surrounded by countless Overlords and her grandmother, a Primordial, watching over everything.

How were they supposed to escape?

And even if they somehow did...

Would it really be worth it if it destroyed his life in the process?

Could she truly be happy knowing something had happened to him because of her?

No.

She couldn’t.

If it came to that...

She was prepared to kneel before her grandmother, prepared to beg her uncle, prepared to offer up her own freedom once again and prepared to offer her life...

If it meant Damien could leave this place alive.

But as if reassuring her that everything would be alright, his grin only widened as he closed the remaining distance, now only a few meters away from crashing into the arena.

"DRAGON PRINCESS, HAVE YOU NOT HEARD ME?" His voice thundered across the entire arena. "I HAVE COME HERE WITH ONLY ONE PURPOSE!"

He extended his hand toward her.

"TO KIDNAP YOU!"

His smile widened even further.

"IF YOU WISH TO SURVIVE... THEN TAKE MY HAND! BECAUSE I SHALL KIDNAP YOU!"

She didn’t know what came over her.

She knew it was futile, she knew they could never escape and yet... Her heart, which had obediently listened to her all this time, acted on its own.

Despite her own hesitation, the hand that had never once reached out when to ask for help, extended toward the sky slowly.

The surrounding dragons had barely recovered from the shock of watching a pitifully weak human attempt something so absurd.

None of them moved because there was no need because even if the boy reached the arena, there was no possible way for him to escape.

So they simply waited for him to fall but just before his body touched the ground, Alden grabbed Aemirya’s outstretched hand mid-air.

"Black Hole."

The moment those words left his lips, the enormous Eclipse hanging above the arena, which dragons had dismissed as nothing more than an elaborate trick to block out the sun, was shattered, revealing its true form.

A massive black hole tore open across the sky.

Its overwhelming pull pulled and devoured everything around it. The walls and tiles of the arena flew the fastest toward it, disintegrating the instant they crossed the boundary between light and shadow.

While most of the stronger dragons reacted in time and abandoned all thoughts of pursuit, desperately struggling to anchor themselves and the young ones who couldn’t stabilise themselves, against the terrifying force.

Meanwhile, Alden and Aemirya were also pulled toward the Black Hole because his own spell made no distinction between friend and foe.

As they were dragged through the air, Alden sliced through the chains binding Aemirya with the edge of his hand using Ruinous Severance.

Just as they were about to be swallowed by the Black Hole, he extended his free hand as the portal he had stored within his Abyssal Soul appeared before them.

Instead of being consumed by the black hole, the two of them were swallowed by the portal but for the briefest instant before disappearing...

Alden’s eyes met those of the woman seated upon the throne.

The Dragon Queen.

Ever since he had entered the arena, Alden had been keeping an eye on her. She was the one variable he hadn’t accounted for and a being whose strength he couldn’t even begin to fathom.

She could have stopped everything, she could have crushed his plan before it had even begun and yet, she had merely watched with that same cold, unreadable expression.

But her expression had finally changed as a slow smile spread across her face as if she had chosen to let them go.

Just before the portal closed completely, Alden gave her a wide smirk and whispered one final command.

"Singularity Shatter."

The Black Hole abruptly collapsed into itself and an instant later, it exploded as a catastrophic wave of destruction swept across the arena.

But by then...

The portal carrying Alden and Aemirya had already vanished.

***

Remaining seated upon her throne, Bazooka watched the destruction the boy had left behind as the corners of her lips slowly curled into a smile.

Many of the Dragon Empire’s most talented youths and several elders had even been injured by the surprise attack.

But she couldn’t have cared less because this was to be expected. Instead, her crimson eyes drifted toward the heavens.

"So... it has finally begun."

Her smile softened ever so slightly.

"Since he has already arrived... Will I be fortunate enough to see you again as well... Master?"