The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL] Chapter 455: Something Ahead

Meanwhile, elsewhere, just as the siege was getting well underway, the Wyvern Queen had finally decided to stop wasting her forces on multiple sides of the Ministry and instead concentrate everything on a single point of entry.

After several failed attempts to find an easier way inside, she’d already confirmed that the MBE’s famous barrier didn’t merely protect the visible portions of the building either. The damned thing extended all the way underground, effectively wrapping the entire headquarters in a protective shell that left them with no convenient way to dig underneath it.

Which meant that if they wanted in, they’d have to break through.

And somewhere inside that increasingly battered shell, Orryn could only pray that his decision to go on the offensive would continue working for as long as possible.

Admittedly, he’d been draining the Ministry’s stored mana much faster than he’d originally intended. The MBE’s defenses had been designed primarily to react to incoming threats rather than continuously bombard everyone standing outside, so forcing the ancient system to attack this aggressively certainly wasn’t the most efficient use of its reserves.

Still, there was no denying that it worked.

Not only had the unexpected counterattacks already cut down a significant number of the forces accompanying the Wyvern Queen, but more importantly, Orryn had managed to keep that crazed woman interested.

Interested enough to believe that there really was something inside worth protecting.

Interested enough to keep attacking instead of stopping to wonder why things weren’t adding up.

Hell, she’d even started sending probes toward different sections of the barrier, clearly trying to figure out where the defenders inside might’ve been concentrating their efforts.

And for Orryn, that was probably the greatest benefit of this entire suicidal performance.

Because sure, they’d successfully tricked the wyverns into coming all the way to the MBE for practically nothing, but getting them there had only been half the problem.

If that woman had arrived to find a sad, abandoned building sitting in complete silence, how long would it really have taken her to realize that something was wrong?

A minute?

Maybe two if they were lucky?

There was no way she would’ve continued wasting time trying to break into a place that clearly had no one inside.

So Orryn needed noise. At least some sort of resistance.

He needed the Wyvern Queen to believe that the retaliation and every illusion moving behind those exposed windows belonged to beings desperately trying to keep her out.

And judging by how aggressively her forces had continued throwing themselves against the Ministry, he’d thought his performance was working rather well.

Maybe he could even buy Riley and the others more time than he’d initially hoped.

Unfortunately, the universe apparently didn’t appreciate that tiny bit of optimism.

Because just as Orryn was beginning to think he might actually pull this off for a little longer, the constant barrage against the Ministry abruptly stopped.

The red dragon froze.

For several seconds, he simply stood there, bracing himself for the next impact.

But nothing came from the other side.

Sure, the runes he’d been activating were still dealing damage, but there were no attempts to block them or even retaliate.

Now that wasn’t good.

Orryn immediately turned toward the magical orb displaying the area outside, trying to figure out what had suddenly changed.

Then he saw her.

The Wyvern Queen was standing completely still amid her forces, only now her back was turned toward the Ministry.

Her head had tilted slightly in the direction of Wyrmfall, and even from this distance, the sudden change in her body language was difficult to miss.

The almost theatrical confidence she’d carried while ordering her forces forward had vanished. Her shoulders had gone rigid, and for several long seconds, she simply stood there as though something had abruptly stolen her attention away from the siege.

Orryn stared at her through the orb.

His stomach sank.

He had no idea what she’d sensed, but considering exactly where her attention seemed to be directed, he could make one particularly unpleasant guess.

Had the others been discovered?

Well, nonetheless...

There was really only one appropriate response to something like that.

__

But hey, if Orryn thought he had reason to worry, then one black dragon was quite literally feeling it all the way down to his bones.

Because while his father-in-law was out there fighting a war that really shouldn’t have happened in the first place, while his mother-in-law and increasingly distressed mate were desperately trying to get out of wherever they’d been thrown so they could find him, and while one red dragon was doing everything in his power to keep the Wyvern Queen’s attention firmly on the MBE, Riley Hale Dravaryn could currently be said to be reciting the word as if it were the only one left in his entire vocabulary.

But who could even blame him when, sure enough, any sort of unexpected calm was just a precursor to the storm as he unceremoniously took a step straight into darkness?

And he meant that quite literally.

Up until then, Riley had continued traversing the circular tunnel while periodically leaving marks along the walls, both for himself and for Kael in case his mate somehow ended up following the same path. He’d just finished etching another one into the stone and was even checking whether it was visible enough when he finally decided it would do.

Yet, as he took another step forward, he felt his entire body shudder.

"!"

It came out of nowhere.

Riley’s eyes instinctively clamped shut as that same horrible sensation tore through him again, his muscles momentarily seizing as something deep inside his body seemed to pull in a direction it really shouldn’t.

Naturally, the pain wasn’t even the first thing that worried him.

Because the last time that happened, he’d opened his eyes to find both his mate and mother-in-law gone.

So when the sensation finally passed and Riley tried to look around, only to be met with complete darkness, his first thought was that something had gone terribly wrong with his eyes.

He blinked.

Nothing.

Riley blinked again, harder this time, before squeezing his eyes shut and reopening them as though that might somehow fix whatever had happened.

Still nothing.

There wasn’t even the faint outline of the tunnel he’d been standing in moments ago. All he could see was that same void-like darkness one normally saw with their eyes closed, enough that Riley briefly wondered whether the pain had been so severe that his body simply hadn’t gotten the message that his eyelids were already open.

Because apparently being separated from his husband inside an enemy stronghold wasn’t enough.

He might’ve gone blind too.

The ex-mortal drew a slow breath and forced himself to calm down, one hand still clutching his chest as though physically verifying that his heart remained where it belonged and, more importantly, was still beating.

Alive.

Breathing.

Not dead yet.

Good enough.

Unfortunately, just as Riley started convincing himself that he could deal with one problem at a time, something suddenly appeared within the darkness.

His breath caught.

At first, the already suffering being didn’t even understand what he was looking at.

Two enormous, luminous shapes slowly emerged from the void ahead, bright enough that Riley instinctively squinted against them. For several confused seconds, his mind simply refused to make sense of what he was seeing. They were too large and far too close, filling so much of his vision that there wasn’t enough of the whole thing for his brain to properly recognize.

Then the same glowing shapes moved.

The realization hit him so violently that Riley stumbled backward, his heel catching on nothing before he practically fell onto his ass. The abrupt distance should’ve been embarrassing, but he couldn’t even spare the dignity to care because from where he’d fallen, he could finally see enough to understand what had been looming right in front of him.

Those weren’t simply two glowing shapes.

They were eyes.