The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 120

#120 The Creature
Cassandra felt like the ground was falling apart under her feet. She was falling into some hellish nightmare. Her mind went blank for a couple of seconds.
The second Prince Vrehan was standing in front of her. The one man she loathed the most, the one she had tried to avoid at all costs until now. Cassandra tried hard to repress her shivers. She couldn’t give up now, not just because he had appeared. She had heard the horn, Kairen had to be close, with his army. Now that she had stopped running, Cassandra could hear the noise outside. It was far, because of how vast the Imperial Palace was, but she could tell something was happening. Probably a war between the Eastern and the Imperial Army. Whatever was going on outside, she silently prayed it was coming their way…
Vrehan, too, was hearing it. He frowned, looking at the window with a sour expression.
“Kairen, that bastard… He was fast…”
Just hearing his name gave Cassandra a new wave of strength. She took a deep breath, her eyes still on Vrehan, thinking about her next move. She couldn’t stay here, Lephys would catch up any second, and going forward was now out of the question. She glanced sideways. She had hoped to find a real exit earlier, but it seemed like she would have no choice but to climb up one of the windows.
“Oh, well… At least now I got a valuable hostage,” suddenly whispered Vrehan, his eyes going back to her.
Cassandra took a step back as a reflex. She was not going to let him approach her. She had made that mistake once, and the cost was Dahlia’s life. She had learned her lesson now.
Before he could add a word, Cassandra suddenly jumped on the side and did her best to climb the window as fast as she could. She heard him yell something unintelligible’ behind her, but she had no time to wonder what. It was absolutely desperate, but she couldn’t stay in that corridor. Moreover, the words of the Emperor had been circling in her mind for quite some time. The Lake, did he meant that lake? Why would he mention this lake?
Cassandra fell on her feet, in the deep grass of the garden, and started running right away. She knew she only had a few seconds at best before both brothers would catch her. She was running as fast as she could towards the lake. She had no idea what was going to happen if that lake could save her life. She just had no other option left. Diving into the lake seemed like the craziest resort…
“Come back here!”
The fifth Prince had just jumped out of the window too, but Cassandra was several meters ahead of him, and had no intention to slow down. The only thing that interested her right now was the Lake, but something caught her attention while she was still rushing. Many, many shadows of lines were on the ground. She rose her head to understand where those strange shadows came from. A grid!
That crazy second prince had laid out a grid on the roofs of that area. Thick, long silver chains were running between the roofs, covering the open area. Was that meant to keep the Dragons from entering that area? She didn’t remember seeing anything like this during her flight earlier with Opheus, but it would have been impossible for him to cover the whole Imperial Palace. Had he just laid those for the areas where he had hidden the Emperor? This was insane! It also explained Glahad’s absence. Where had the golden dragon gone, if he wasn’t by his master’s side? Had he been trapped in some way?
Cassandra didn’t have time to wonder more, as she heard the slap of the whip dangerously close behind her. She accelerated, despite the pain in her back and lower half. The strain from all that running and climbing was starting to take its toll on her body. She ignored it, only focusing on the lake, and running faster than the two princes.
“What are you doing!”
She didn’t listen. Her feet were already in the water. She tried to scrutinize the surface of the lake as she walked in, but she couldn’t see much. With the sunlight’s reflection, it was too deep or too dark to see anything past a
couple of meters on the surface. How deep was that lake? While singing her song weeks ago, she had stayed were she could just sit and have the water up her waist.
Now, she was going as far as she could in the lake. The familiar feeling of the water soaking her legs gave her some more strength, and she tore the sides of her dress to walk or swim more comfortably. The whip slashed again, whipping the surface right next to her. He had just missed her, but he was far enough to hit her!
“Don’t kill her!” Shout Vrehan. “We need her alive!”
That sentence may save her life, ironically. Lephys kept trying to get a hold of her, but the Prince apparently wasn’t good at gauging his own strength. Either he was too strong and violently slashed the water, or he missed her completely. Cassandra kept going, half-swimming now. She knew the Dragon Princes wouldn’t follow her into the water, but everything was going to be about how long could she stay underneath. (1)
She took several deep breaths, and when her lungs were full, she finally dived in.
She heard the whip hitting the water a couple of times above her, and hurried to go deeper down the lake. Cassandra needed to be far enough from the surface so they wouldn’t hit her. 6
She had no idea where to go. It took her eyes a long minute to adjust to the water, and finally, she saw clear. As she had suspected, it was much, much deeper than it looked from the surface. She couldn’t tell how much exactly, but she kept going down. As she dived, Cassandra couldn’t help but silently pray the air she had stored would last the longest possible. She swam past a lot of fish and being merged in the underwater world felt a bit eerie in such a situation. Probably no one from the Imperial Family had ever bothered to try swimming in that lake. None of the fish looked bothered by her presence, and there was no threat. 5
Cassandra kept diving, again and again. Her constitution was different from the Dragon Empire people. Her legs could paddle for a long time without being too tired, and ‘her eyes weren’t troubled by the water. Her body could handle the pressure, and her lungs retain air for a long time. 5
Hence, she kept going down. What had the Emperor hoped she would find in that Lake? Was it even the right Lake he had mentioned? It was too late to wonder and worry now. She dived, soon surrounded by darkness was she was getting away from the surface.
As she soon realized, the light wasn’t the only thing slowly disappearing. There were less and less fish as she dived deeper down. Why? She would have thought all those underwater creatures would enjoy the calm in the lower levels of the lake, but instead, all the little fish stayed above the surface, as if… as if they were too scared to go down. The few ones that dared go low didn’t stay long, they would go back to the surface quickly. Cassandra hesitated. Should she still go down after witnessing that? What were the depths of the Lake hiding… 5
She glanced upwards. It felt strangely calm here, compared to what was waiting for her at the surface. She had no choice anyway. The danger was surely much more important on the surface…
The young concubine kept going down, her eyes struggling to see anything in this darkness. She had a strange feeling. As if something was lurking at her, in the darkness. Something dangerous.
Cassandra was starting to feel a little unwell. The air in her lungs was slowly running out, and she was tired. Her body was resenting all the vigorous exercise from that day, and the water pressure was adding to her pain. She couldn’t go back up yet. She had to spend as much time as she could underwater and, even if she couldn’t find anything down there, she should delay her return to the surface as much as possible…
Suddenly, something quickly swam past her. She froze. It was big. Very, very big. It had felt like a long body, something much bigger than any underwater creature she had ever heard of. A snake?
Fear was starting to crawl at the back of her mind. Not being able to see anything was even more terrifying. If a beast decided to attack her, she was completely defenseless. She had left Opheus’ earring in his brother’s neck to delay his healing process, and she had given her dagger to Missandra before they left for the Palace, as her younger sister was a better fighter in case they found themselves in such a situation, but she hadn’t even thought of taking it back when they parted ways. She probably wouldn’t have, anyway, but now she regretted it. She had
nothing left to defend herself with…
The creature moved next to her again, and a loud sound resonated like an echo in the water. Cassandra’s eyes grew larger. Wasn’t that… a growl? It was higher-pitched than a Dragon’s, but it was so similar to Krai’s growl! It couldn’t be, right?
Suddenly, this strange growl resonated again, and she turned towards its origin, squinting her eyes to try and locate the creature’s position. If it could see her, why hadn’t it attacked already? Was that thing what the fish were afraid of? Cassandra focused on the water’s movements around her, trying to figure out where that creature would swim to next. It had to be very, very big, from the growl it made… A crazy theory was growing at the back of her mind, but it seemed absolutely impossible, unreal…
Suddenly, two big white lights appeared in the darkness. Cassandra had to cover her mouth not to scream and lose some of her precious air. Those were big like diamonds, but they were definitely… eyes. A pair of reptilian eyes. .
The two eyes grew closer, and Cassandra tried to swim away by reflex. Judging from the size of those eyes, whatever creature it belonged to had to be enormous! If that thing decided to hunt her, she was already dead.
However, the eyes didn’t appear menacing. Instead, it was growing close slowly, without any animosity in them. Cassandra froze, though her heart was beating like crazy. What was that thing? She decided to stop and let it approach. She couldn’t go far or fast enough to flee it, anyway. If she had to die, it’d better be quick…
A giant snout appeared below the white eyes. It was covered in scales. Cassandra thought they were dark grey, but it could have been any color in this darkness, she couldn’t tell. Maybe dark red, or dark purple. The creature’s head approached, her, and its large snout sniffed the human woman a couple of times. Cassandra was speechless. It was impossible, but she couldn’t unsee this. It was definitely a dragon’s head, no matter how she saw it.
The head was a bit leaner than any dragon she had seen, and there were no little horns on the side of its face are on its head, either. Only to long ones, on the top of its head. Though one of those was broken. The cheeks were a bit rounder, however, Cassandra noticed the wide and long holes on the neck as the creature turned its head slightly. Weren’t those clearly gills…?
The creature circled around her, clearing gauging her. Cassandra had a hard time calling it a dragon, but she was fascinated by that creature. The face was clearly that of a dragon, but its body was different from those she knew. It was much leaner, with shorter limbs, and more importantly, the angles of those limbs had large fans the dragon was agitating slowly or widely to move itself underwater. Cassandra was amazed. No matter how she thought about it, those had to be fins… there were several on its back, too, and the tail of that Dragon had a similar shape, as well.
This vision seemed so impossible, she wondered if she hadn’t lost consciousness already, and was perhaps hallucinating all this. Yet, the creature was very real next to her. It kept going in circles around her, and she could tell its eye wasn’t losing her one second. It growled again, and Cassandra wondered if that was it. If she was going to die killed by such an impossible creature. Was that what the King wanted her to find?
Cassandra didn’t have much air left in her lungs. She was suffocating, her head spinning a bit. She glanced towards the surface. What could she do? It was already a miracle that this dragon hadn’t attacked her… It was at least as big as Krai! Such a magnificent creature… Cassandra had no more oxygen, she opened her mouth slightly, feeling too tired to fight anymore. The creature slowly swam closer to her, and she found the strength to extend her arm. The dragon, if it was one, slid past her, letting her finger slid on its skin. It was incredibly cold… unlike Krai’s warm scales. Cassandra chuckled, her brain finding that information funny
She couldn’t hold it anymore. She wanted to close her eyes…
One last growl resonated before she lost consciousness.