The Reborn Witch had a nice 'Tea Time' with the Dragon Queen today-Chapter 13: Pride (5)

Adrei, upon seeing Demond's unconscious form, felt a newfound determination. The witch's words had pierced her heart like an arrow, but she knew she had to be strong for her wife. Carefully, she lifted Demond out of the water, the witch's body feeling like a feather in her powerful arms. The dragon's eyes searched the room, looking for anything that could serve as a comfortable resting place, before deciding to conjure a warm fabric herself to be placed on the ground, along with the witch's discarded robes.

As she carefully placed Demond onto the warm fabric, Adrei felt the gravity of her promise. She knew that the path to break the wolf's pride would be with peril, especially against the witch's own wishes. But she also knew that she could not bear to watch the woman she loved suffer alone. With a heavy heart, she made her way out of the bathroom, her thoughts racing as her robe flew to her naked form.

The corridors to the throne rolm were quiet, somber, mournful. The dressed Adrei watched as the pubs bowed along her path, as if ready to witness their Queen's demise with their own eyes. The dragon's tail swished in agitation, she would allow them to witness the end, but not in the way they would wish.

As she opened the door to the throne room, it was empty, except the cold, white wolf sitting atop the throne, her eyes closed as if in meditation. Leona's fur was stained with the crimson of the setting sun, her breaths shallow, as if the very act of breathing was a chore. Adrei approached, her steps silent despite the grandeur of the room that seemed to demand pomp and circumstance.

"You have arrived." Leona's voice was a low growl, her eyes still closed. She knew the dragon's presence without looking.

"Ah, I have come to honour your pride, wolf." Adrei's voice was a soft murmur that seemed to fill the room, the power behind it belying its gentle tone. She stopped before the throne, her eyes never leaving the wolf's form.

As the wolf opened her eyes, runes of old circulated her bodies, the blue hues of ancient magic pulsing around her neck, her injured torso, and her legs. The sight of her brought a sharp pain to Adrei's heart, a pain that was as cold as the water they just left. Yet, the dragon's eyes remained steady, filled with a warmth that was as fiery as the volcano's peak.

"I thank you, Queen of Dragons, for humouring this one's deceit and betrayal." The wolf sat up, her legs crackling with frost and shivering snowflakes, the essence of mana from her master.

"So let us start with haste, before-"

"Unfortunately, wolf. I am not here to honor your deceit but to challenge it." Adrei's voice was firm, a stark contrast to the warmth that had filled the room moments ago. Her eyes bore into Leona's, the fiery determination in them unmistakable.

Annoyed, the wolf let out a low growl. "Do not play jokes with this dying wolf, Queen of Dragons. Even a dying breath of frost could freeze your heart to shatters, and I am not your toy to play with."

The dragon chuckled, unbefitting her title as a peacekeeper. She straddled to the side with a merciless smirk, as if towering over an inferior species's pride.

"But why do you think I'm playing a joke?" Her voice was a mix of amusement and challenge, a deadly cocktail that made Leona's fur stand on end.

Adrei then approached the wall of the throne room, her claw then seething into the ice, marks that would be symbolic of her rebellious spirit. "We, dragons, have always been honourless scums. We took from others what we could not, we pillaged from others what we did not deserve, and we burnt lands that were not our own. Yet here I stand, a changed creature, seeking peace, not war, and friendship, not conquest. And what of you, wolf? Are you so stubborn that you cannot see the truth that lies before your eyes?"

"The truth is that my companions...my master's companions. I have failed to protect them, all of them!" The wolf's cry shivered the throne room, the coldness in her voice not from the chilling mana but from the grief that had been buried deep within her for years. "And now, I stand before you, a mere shadow of what I once was, with a lie on my lips and a heart filled with regret. How dare you challenge me, when all I wish is to leave this world with what little dignity I have left?"

"Then did that dignity extend to your master? To die behind her without a word, leaving her to bear the weight of your sacrifice alone?" A chuckle full of ridicule slipped from Adrei's mouth. "I knew Leona, the fiercest wolf in the lands of war, her spirits untouched by even the tyrant's flame. And yet, that same wolf wished to abandon her master, to leave on her own without seeking a true resolution?"

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"...there is no resolution to my 'death', Queen of Dragons." The wolf seethed her teeth. "If I am to die either way, I wish for the honour I once lost to your kind, I pray for the dignity I once wept to my master, and I yearn for the peace I once wait, not for this land, but for my own."

As if the wolf's encased in her past, the throne behind her now seemed like a prison of ice, each block a memory of her fallen comrades, her eyes glazed with the pain of her regret. Adrei felt the burden of her own past wars, the weight of the lives she had taken, and the warmth of the lives she had saved. But all that was abandoned as her tail swished once more, a silent declaration of the battle she was about to wage, not with claws or fire, but with words and truth.

"Even if...I have to betray my master, this is the path I will follow, this is the end I will seek." Leona's voice was low, the words hanging in the air like a frozen mist that refused to dissipate.

"Then I will crush that path with strength, and imagine an end far greater for you than your pride allows, wolf." As the Dragon Queen retorted, she extended her palms as manas of intense blaze gathered around her scaled hand, forming two grip-like rods. Her hands moved with a swift grace as she held the fire, the heat contrasting sharply with the cold room.

Two scythes of pure flame formed in Adrei's hands, the heat palpable even in the frigid room. The wolf's eyes widened, but she remained steadfast, not backing down from the dragon's challenge. The air grew thick with tension, the very essence of their conflicting manas clashing like two storms.

"And so as the daughter of Adalon the Tyrant, as the honourless peacekeeper of this era, and as the sworn protector of Demond the Witch." The dragon pointed her scythe-like flames at the wolf, the blue hues of the frost around the room began to melt away with the intensity of her flames. "I challenge you, Wolf Queen of the Frozen Night."