The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL] Chapter 454: Separated

Dragon or not, this was not exactly the kind of situation anyone with a decent risk appetite would appreciate.

Just moments ago, Riley had been standing beside his mate and mother-in-law, finally managing to confirm that something was seriously wrong with the wyverns stationed throughout the base. Then, in the span of what couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, he’d suffered what felt like a split-second heart attack and somehow ended up completely alone.

Worse, even the wyverns he knew were supposed to be stationed farther down the tunnel had disappeared from his senses.

"Ah, shit."

As an ex-mortal who still had certain reservations about anything that seemed remotely paranormal, Riley really didn’t appreciate his current situation.

Ideally, he would’ve told himself not to move.

That was what people were supposed to do when they got lost, right? Stay where they were, don’t wander around like an idiot, and make it easier for whoever was looking for them to eventually find them.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t exactly some forest trail where he could sit on a rock and patiently wait for rescue. They were in the middle of an enemy stronghold, and more importantly, they didn’t have enough time for Riley to simply sit there and marinate in his fear until Kael somehow found him.

So despite repeatedly reminding himself that walking around alone was exactly how foolish people in horror movies ended up dying, there really wasn’t much else he could do.

He’d already extended his senses as far as he reasonably could, only to get a big fat nothing in return.

No sign of either of his companions, not even a trace of the wyverns he knew should’ve been nearby.

Which meant that if this really was some kind of illusion, Riley would have to figure out how to break himself out of it.

Still, he wasn’t about to wander around completely blind.

As he continued down the same path they’d originally intended to take, Riley periodically left marks along the tunnel walls, making sure he’d at least have some way of knowing if he somehow started walking in circles. All the while, he couldn’t stop wondering where his mate and Lady Cirila had gone.

Maybe they’d all been caught in the same illusion and were currently stumbling through their own versions of this place, trying to find their way back to one another.

But see, while hardly ideal, most would’ve probably preferred Riley’s interpretation of what had happened to the others.

Unfortunately, while he might’ve been thrown into what felt like the limbo of an extremely well-crafted illusion, the same couldn’t be said for the two golden dragons.

Kael and Lady Cirila had been thrown somewhere far more tangible.

And considerably more crowded.

Everything happened so quickly that neither had much time to process the abrupt shift before they found themselves falling into an enormous cavern hidden somewhere deeper within the wasteland.

The place would’ve looked like any other massive hollow within Wyrmfall if not for the sheer number of wyverns crammed inside.

Grotesque bodies lined the cave walls and sprawled across nearly every stretch of ground below, slumbering in tightly packed clusters that gradually began to stir with the arrival of two very unwelcome guests.

There were monsters everywhere, and yet Kael barely noticed any of it.

From the instant the world shifted around them, the dragon lord’s eyes had remained fixed on the exact place where Riley should’ve been.

His hand was still outstretched.

His fingers were still reaching for his mate.

There was simply no one there for him to grab.

And the moment that reality fully registered, something in Kael’s expression changed.

"Kael! Concentrate!" Lady Cirila shouted over the rapidly rising din as more and more wyverns began waking around them. "If you want to find Riley, we need to get out of here fast!"

That did it.

It was probably the only thing she could’ve said that would’ve gotten through to him at that moment.

The dragon lord’s head snapped toward the mass of waking wyverns below, his already dangerous expression twisting into something considerably worse as the anger he’d been holding back surged to levels that were probably unsafe for everyone in that cavern.

The wyverns were already screeching.

Unlike the hollow guards they’d encountered earlier, these ones certainly didn’t stand around like mannequins after realizing there were intruders among them. Wings unfurled, claws scraped against stone, and the entire underground chamber erupted into chaos as the first wave lunged for the two golden dragons.

Kael met them halfway.

He slammed into the nearest wyvern before it could properly take flight, his claws tearing straight through its body as scorching blue flames erupted around his hand. The creature barely managed a shriek before the fire consumed it, but the angered dragon was already moving toward the next one.

Then another.

And another.

There was none of his usual precision.

No measured assessment of which enemy posed the greatest threat to his twig’s plan, nor any concern for how much attention he might attract in the process.

If anything, Kael simply looked almost possessed.

The only thing keeping him remotely grounded was the bond he could still feel connecting him to Riley. Even as he ripped through everything unfortunate enough to stand between him and the nearest exit, most of his senses weren’t focused on the enemies attacking him at all.

They were fixed almost entirely on that connection.

Maybe it was the fear of experiencing that kind of loss again, but Kael couldn’t stop checking the bond, needing the constant reassurance that it was still there.

And thankfully, it was.

That alone was probably the only reason the entire mountain hadn’t gone up in flames yet.

Even so, the rightfully frazzled dragon lord attacked with practically no concern for defense, forcing his mother to keep pace as the cavern around them descended into complete pandemonium.

Finesse no longer mattered. Neither did the number of wyverns he had to tear through to reach his mate.

Because if something actually happened to Riley before he reached him, then none of the beings responsible would have to worry about surviving this war.

At that point, none of them would be seeing the light of day anyway.