Chapter 458: What Happened?
Within the fortune dragon’s arkship, Kael pushed the undead fortune dragon aside as he assumed the command position on top of the obsidian platform.
The undead dragon, lacking a lower jaw and looking very weird at the moment, fell over and struggled to stand up.
He looked at Kael with a blank stare. It was hard to tell if there was still any form of consciousness behind those pale eyes. And if there was, it clearly didn’t have free will.
Kael ignored the dragon and channeled more Death Essence into the arkship.
He had discovered something interesting. Usually, many arkships had mechanisms or technology that allowed one to be able to amplify their powers beyond the limits of their tier.
It was because of this amplification mechanism that Ma’abu was able to freeze time within an entire star system for a short period, though that act almost cost him his life.
Most arkships had these mechanisms, even Kael’s arkship which was designed by Noel had this particular mechanism.
It was one of the things about arkships that made them so powerful and valuable.
However, Kael discovered that the amplification technology did not work for Death Essence.
No matter how much Death Essence Kael funneled into the system, it didn’t multiply at all.
It seemed Death Essence could not be cheated like other forms of energy.
Because of this, Kael had to amplify his space powers to hide the Death Essence as it was transported to the edges of the fiery arkship without the owner’s knowledge.
At least, Kael didn’t let the disadvantage stop him from doing what he wanted to do.
Now, with him piloting this arkship and Nalii piloting the other one, they cornered the fire dragon commander.
Cannon blasts fired from both sides, tearing the arkship at the center into pieces in a few breaths.
Vines lurched out of the gaps of Kael’s arkship, Nalii’s handwork, and began searching the wreckage for the body of the dragon commander.
Kael watched this closely, preparing himself to act the instant he noticed something out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, his heart began to beat fast.
Danger.
Kael’s golden eyes shone brightly.
There, at the center of the floating pieces of metal, a glimpse of a multicolored portal could be seen.
The void in between the two arkships, amidst all the wreckage, the fire dragon wore a nasty grin on his scaled face.
His body burned brightly as he still tried to fight off the Death Essence to no avail.
Still, most of his focus was on the heavenly gate opening before him.
He had succeeded.
It was opening.
A multicolored portal opened in front of the red dragon, illuminating his face and making him look like a saint.
In the dark and cold void of the universe, fighting for his life in between two gigantic arkships that could blast him to shreds at any moment, the red dragon felt at peace.
...
...
...
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
Nothing came out of the heavenly gate.
Just silence.
The distortion field had already been turned off and Kael was ready to warp speed his way out of here.
But within the chamber of command, he stared at the holographic screen, a mixture of genuine fear and confusion on his golden-furred face.
Everyone was confused, what was happening?
Or better still, what was supposed to happen?
The red dragon felt his consciousness slipping away little by little. He wanted to hold on a bit longer to see the reinforcement that would come through the heavenly gate.
Every second that passed was like a mountain of disappointment.
The red dragon refused to believe it.
They had been told that all they needed to do was to open a heavenly gate and those in Draconic Heaven would come through.
More so, he had opened this Heavenly Gate at a very precious location. On the other side, this heavenly gate should be opening not too far from Ibadan’s Black Snow Mountain.
It should be opening there as that was where he and all the other Imperial officials had opened their heavenly gates before descending to the universe.
Technically speaking, Ibadon should be the first to detect this heavenly gate.
Unless...
"No," The red fire dragon wore a downcast expression, unable to accept that his death would be for nothing.
Unless Ibadon was not there at all.
Just then, something actually came out of the heavenly gate.
The object looked strange and immediately caught everyone’s attention.
It was long and scaled, like the body of a really muscular serpent. Four limbs which were small compared to the whole body could also be seen.
The red dragon stared at this dead thing with his mouth agape. Wasn’t this the dead body of an ’other’ dragon?
Within the command chamber, Kael narrowed his eyes.
He recognized this creature.
’Isn’t this also a dragon? An Eastern Dragon if I’m not wrong,’ Kael thought.
Indeed, the dead body that had slipped through the heavenly gate just now was that of a dragon’s body.
But it wasn’t the regular dragon that Kael and the lions were used to. The red dragon himself was different, having four legs and two massive wings.
His neck was like hay if a horse and his limbs were pretty moderate compared to his body.
This dead dragon that came through the portal was long and less bulky. It didn’t have any wings at all and the only defining trait was the metallic black scales and two whiskers near its mouth.
*BAM! BAM! BAM!*
Kael’s shock was cut off by the red dragon’s body exploding. Countless invisible cannon blasts were fired from the other side, completely demolishing the two bodies.
With most of his energy drained and him having the destructive Death Essence inside him, the red dragon could not put up the slightest resistance.
Just like that, the red dragon and the dead serpentine-like dragon were gone, blasted to a million tiny unrecoverable pieces.
The heavenly gate automatically closed like nothing had happened.
*Silence*
...
Nalii: Kael, did we get him?
...
The golden screen flashed in front of Kael, causing his eyelids to twitch.
He took a deep breath, in and out. His chest rose and fell as he calmed down. Too many things had happened today that got him agitated, so many things nearly got out of his control, Kael didn’t like that.
He didn’t want to transfer that agitation to Nalii.
...
Kael: Yes, we did.
...
Kael’s mind was still on that strange dragon body that had slipped out of the heavenly beacon just now.
Could that even be called another dragon species? Or were there two kinds of dragons?
This was something that Kael did not know of. Not even the memories from the previous Primordial Lions had information on this.
What had happened in the Draconic Heaven that Ibadon could not respond at this time.
Kael felt that something was amiss and decided to investigate it later.
Either way, he had luckily escaped a huge misfortune that had been coming his way.
Kael and Nalii talked more and they assessed the damage done to Kael’s arkship.
It was seriously damaged and would require repairs. Unfortunately, the only lions who could repair an arkship like this probably resided in Leonine Heaven.
Kael was already contemplating going to Leonine Heaven very soon after he was done with Planet Kareem so this wasn’t really an issue.
For now, all they could do was replenish the Origin Essence reserves.
The heavenly beacon dropped by the red dragon commander was recovered by Kael.
Now, Kael had three Heavenly Beacons of the dragon race.
An unexpected loot. But that was the least of Kael’s new benefits of today’s unexpected events.
Except for the arkship which they had destroyed, Kael now had an extra two arkships.
Kael wasn’t even tier 6 yet and already owned three arkships. If other Lion Kings found out about this, they would scratch their names out.
Just like that.
As Kael rode the arkship back to planet Kareem, he couldn’t help but wear a satisfied smile on his face.
Today could have turned out to be the worst day for Kael, but it didn’t. And for that, Kael was thankful.
This event had also allowed him to test out his strength and abilities.
Kael had always wanted the chance to understand how strong he was compared to other tier 6 or tier 5, he finally knew.
Kael now understood that he was probably as strong as a tier 6 lion or dragon without Conqueror Mode.
At least, with Hunting Essence and Death Essence, Kael was able to beat down one tier 6 dragon and kill another one within the span of a day.
The Hunter State worked perfectly, allowing him to match the power of the War Dragon without using any of his other powers.
And the Death Essence performed just how Kael had seen Marcus use it.
The undead fortune dragon standing beside him currently was evidence that Kael now operated powers beyond what ordinary lions could comprehend.
No Primordial Lion had ever achieved these feats in the history of Lionkind, using the Primordial Essence of other Primordials.
But this also meant that Kael actually had the means to threaten the fate of not just the lion civilizat