1 Chapter 1 - LOST HOPE

"Astarot!!" A young woman enclosed in a thin sphere of golden light screamed. She was surrounded by hordes of terrifying monsters attacking the ball of light protecting her and with every attack, the light grew dimmer. "Nooooo!!!!" She screamed again, turning into a slim golden dragon. With the protective ball of light gone, the monsters started pouncing on her but a flick of her long tail covered in golden light, swept the multitudes of horrible looking creatures swarming towards her away. One of her wings had been pierced through and her dragon form was sorry to look at but she still managed to fly, heading towards a bigger black dragon that had a spear pierced through it's chest. That spear was no ordinary spear. Astarot 's death was inevitable.

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Alina had seen it all happen.

Ellie the witch had been working with Astarot and others to hold up the new battle front line. They had all been exhausted with some dead but they kept fighting in order to live. There seemed to be no end to the inflow of monsters attacking and they were all over the place. Having fought these monsters for days, with so many lost lives, a pattern was finally attuned to the monster's attacks and they all drafted a formation to defend according to the strength and danger level of these monsters. The plan had been working, and they were finally able to take turns in battling while also having some time to recover some energy. The vampires had withdrawn from the battle some days ago, stating that they couldn't take any more losses. No one knew where their location was anyway as it had always been a mystery which was why it was extremely surprising and appreciated when they showed up to help in the first place.

After the vampires left, it was just the werewolves, dragons and witches. Then with sudden news of the same dreadful calamity befalling their territory, most of the werewolves helping them had returned to defend their territory. The dragons only had the witches helping them. Since they had been fighting without end, they were given strength recovery potions prepared by the witches. It wasn't like their real dragon strength but at least it worked.

Alina wasn't keen on drinking the potion handed to her that morning as she was recalling the painful death of the last person she knew from her bloodlines. She was the last golden dragon with the Golden Light bloodline left.

She had kept the bottle in a tiger-skin pouch tied to her waist before flying onto the walls in her dragon form, resuming her position. Her golden eyes with vertical slits landed on the back of a midnight-black dragon, Astarot. Other dragons including the dragon emperor called him Unnias, but her then cheeky self would only call him Astarot. He had stayed up all night and was still on the outermost wall, looking at the distance. If he could still remain strong after everything, then Alina saw no reason why she couldn't. She looked at her comrades, they had been more than this but now, they were just few left. She felt her blood starting to boil. Her parents, her friends, the few people with her bloodline,...all dead. The prestigious dragon empire, now in great ruins, all because of...-her eyes turned into slits as she focused on the creatures feeding on their dead counterparts far in the ruins of an empire that was once glorious. Her chest started to rumble but roaring was of no use. These monsters weren't afraid of the might in a dragon's roar. Rather, they had grown immune to it. Only the weakest amongst the monsters would pause a bit on hearing a dragon's roar.

Alina's taut body relaxed a bit and with a low grumble she lowered herself on the walls and covered her head with her wings not knowing a red eye belonging to a certain midnight black dragon had been discreetly watching her.

Turning his head, the black dragon looked at the walls like theirs hidden in two opposing locations in the distance.

When it was almost twilight, a hideous roar sounded within the ruins of the former kingdom which was now an abode for the monsters. The monsters started pouring out and the battle began once more.

Halfway through the battle, the other dragons suddenly started losing control of their bodies. The monsters attack grew more intense and more dangerous monsters started joining. 'They were supposed to be fighting the higher ups on the eastern walls! What was happening?!' Alina wondered as she looked round and saw her comrades throwing up while struggling to fight the monsters. "Aarrghh!" Alina screamed, swiping her claws at a monster that was about to start chewing her. That was what a moment of distraction costed. She was surrounded by monsters herself and couldn't really help."What was wrong with her comrades?" Her heart clenched as she finally rushed to one and the scent of the witches' potion wafted from the person's mouth into her nose. She was quick to note the little bottle in her comrade's hands and her eyes grew wide. Alina kept fighting while protecting her comrade. It was a dangerous thing to do at the moment but she had to do it.

Her comrades had all turned into human form and they were all becoming motionless, gasping for air. The monsters rushed for them and their screams filled her ears. The sound of a deep crack caught her ears and she looked down to see the monsters rushing in, with bigger ones hitting the walls with big clubs, breaking down the walls. "Alina... we've been.." Her comrade managed to say with a bitter smile. "Shush. Stay with me. I'll get you.." Alina started but before she could finish, he had given up. She had been ignoring the tremors caused by the monsters hitting against her light shield but when the monsters started fleeing and a huge giant monster shadow got casted upon her golden dome she shifted back into her dragon form, flying into the night's air and landing on one of the inner walls. The others were all dead with their corpses at the mercy of the monsters. Alina couldn't bring herself to cry anymore. Carrying the corpse in her dragon mouth, she flew to a big bell and dropped him under it. If no one on the other walls had rung the bell yet, it could only mean they were all dead. With her dragon breath, she burnt her comrade's corpse to ashes. "I'm sorry, but this is the only thing I could think of. Better than being devoured by those monsters." She scattered the ashes into the air.

"Is this the end? Where else can we run to?" Alina thought, looking up at the huge dome they've been unable to break. A tear escaped from one of her eyes.The dome that had prevented them all from really fleeing even though other races could freely go and come. The dragons couldn't.

Grasping the huge rope with her dragon teeth, Alina rang the bell.