The meteor suddenly appeared in Melita's field of vision, leaving behind a bright trail and blazing flames. It cut an eye-catching trail in the dim dusk, as if a sharp blade had abruptly split the sky of Tarlonde. Soon, it disappeared from everyone's sight and fell diagonally to the ground in the distance.
After a while, Melita saw a cloud of hazy flames and dust rising from the horizon.
"Did you see that?!" Melita finally reacted. Her eyes widened as she looked at Carador and the others. "Was that … a meteor?!"
"A meteor?" Carador whispered subconsciously. He looked up. Many of the Dragons also looked up. Then, most of them reflexively looked away from the sky as if they were afraid of the impending punishment. But the punishment did not come. Looking at the starry sky was no longer a taboo in Tarlonde.
Carador only had time to see the fading light in the sky.
"That's weird … I don't know if that was a meteor." Melita was still looking into the distance. Her voice was a little uncertain. "I just accidentally saw a few meteors, but that one … seemed to be a little slower than the ones I have seen before. There was also a long trail of flames and smoke …"
Carador looked away from the horizon. His eyes fell back on the container in front of Noretta. Before paying attention to the fading star in the sky, he first continued the previous topic. "We need to rescue those dragon eggs. Those with light injuries, those with stamina, and those who can still fly, step forward."
Melita looked around. Before she could look around, one figure after another had stepped out from the crowd.
"I still think it's not a good idea to use our claws to dig through the polymer and alloy barriers." The black dragon not far from Melita shook its head. "But count me in. At least a black dragon is stronger."
Carador nodded. "Okay, then let's …"
Before the red dragon's voice trailed off, the sound of dragon wings flapping in the air suddenly came from the sky. Melita looked up and saw a huge and old Giant Dragon spreading its wings and slowly descending from the sky.
It was a black dragon. But because it was so old, its scales were almost grayish-white. A large number of implants were all over its body. From its forehead to its tail, almost every inch of its scales had a metallic luster. At this moment, many of those implants had stopped working, and many parts were obviously half-dismantled. This made the old Giant Dragon look like an ancient machine from a museum. It was vicissitudes, ancient, majestic, but scarred.
The moment the black dragon descended from the sky, almost all the Dragons present lowered their heads. Even Melita was no exception. She recognized the black dragon. It was the Grand Elder of the Senate, Sir Ducemore. Although the Council and the Senate were two independent institutions, and Melita had little contact with the members of the Senate, but at this moment, there was no difference between the Senate and the Council in Tarlonde. A living ancient dragon was a supreme treasure.
"Elder Ducemore." The red dragon Carador immediately stepped forward. "Why are you here? Your implant surgery is not complete yet. These components must be dismantled as soon as possible … "
"I'm fine. The advantage of the primitive implant is that even without the Omega system, its basic life-support functions can still function normally." Elder Ducemore said slowly with a hoarse voice. "Did you see something falling from the sky? It fell to the northwest of the camp … "
"I saw it!" Melita said at once. "It looked like a meteor!"
"Meteor?" Ducemore looked down at Melita with his huge gray-white eyes and a mechanical eye. "No, it was not a meteor … I received an ancient navigation signal. Our leader is back …"
Then, ignoring the shocked and confused expressions of Melita and the other Dragons, he turned directly to Carador. "I need one or two helpers. Come with me to the crash site to investigate the situation."
Melita blinked. Although she was still a little confused, she knew that Elder Ducamore must have a very important purpose for dragging his body here. She glanced at Noretta who was standing not far away and her compatriots who were preparing to dig for the dragon eggs. Then she stood up without hesitation. "I'll go with you. The others are preparing to go to the hatching factory to see if there are any surviving dragon eggs."
"Well, Melita, you and Elder Ducemore will go together. The others will follow Noretta to dig up the dragon eggs in the ruins of the incubation factory." Carador nodded quickly and looked at the old black dragon in front of him. "Elder, is Melita enough? If not, there are still some in the camp … "
"It's enough. We're just going to investigate the situation," Elder Ducemore said in a low voice. "I'll take care of this. At the same time … I hope you can do your best to save those dragon eggs. Those are the hope and future of Tarlonde."
…
Northwest of the ruins of Agundor, after crossing a molten magma lake and a steep cliff that had solidified into glass, it was the final crash site of the Tarlonde.
The crater created by the core module's crash was still filled with amazing heat. The rising smoke was mixed with the unique smell of burning polymers. Liquid substances leaked out of the spacecraft's pipes were sprinkled on the edge of the crater and were burning with blue-green flames.
At the bottom of the crater, a lump of almost unrecognizable twisted metal was half-buried in the loose and scorching soil and sand. The lump of metal looked extremely miserable, as if it had gone through an unimaginable challenge. But even so, part of its core structure was still stable, and the reinforced alloy walls covering the frame were mostly intact.
This was an amazing fall, but it was also a precisely calculated 'safe crash'.
After dozens of minutes, there was finally some movement in the wreckage that fell from space: a loud noise came from the depths of the wreckage as if someone inside was hitting the deformed alloy panels with great force. A bright light shone from the gap between the panels and the frame as if someone was using powerful magic to cut the deformed and stuck frame. The rough 'dismantling' process lasted for a long time. Finally, with a loud sound of metal breaking, a large piece of the wreckage was finally removed and flew straight out of the crater.
Then, a huge silver-white dragon claw reached out from the hole that had just been opened up. The giant claw tore at the hole and opened it up further. Then, after a while, the silver-white giant dragon stretched its wounded body out of the hole.
Following closely behind the silver-white Giant Dragon were Helagol and Andal in dragon form.
They struggled to get out of the completely destroyed and burning wreckage of the spacecraft. Although they had transformed into the powerful Giant Dragon form, the impact of the crash still hurt them a lot. The three primordial dragons dragged their battered and disoriented heads in the crater for a long time before regaining some of their strength. After that, they supported each other and struggled for a long time before finally reaching the crater.
The silver-white Giant Dragon turned its head and looked at the smoking wreckage of the crater. After a long while, it let out a long sigh with inexplicable sadness. "This time it's completely destroyed …"
"Don't be sad about the spacecraft, Balogel. How many rounds have we been in orbit …" Beside the silver-white Giant Dragon, the old black dragon kept shaking its dizzy head. The sequelae caused by the shutdown of various implants made it more difficult for him to adapt to the current environment than the other two companions. The noise in his nervous system was constantly interfering with his judgment. "I feel like I've seen the sunrise and sunset a dozen times …"
"A lot more than that one. We have been decelerating and descending. When we reached the near-Earth orbit, our speed was very fast …" Helagol, who had golden scales, looked up at the empty sky. "We should be thankful for these orbits. If not for such a long deceleration, we would have probably become part of this land. The impact of falling from space directly to the ground is not something even the Giant Dragon can withstand."
"This land …" Balogel finally recovered some strength. He listened to Helagol and slowly propped up his huge upper body. He raised his head high and looked at the devastated place. For a few minutes, he did not speak. It was not until a particularly bone-chilling wind blew past his ears that he gently took a breath. "Have we returned to Tarlonde?"
"… I'm not sure, but there seems to be no other explanation," Helagol said in a low voice. "When I last saw the scenery outside the window, I saw that we were falling toward the north pole. So the only place we can land should be Tarlonde."
Andal also raised his head and looked silently into the distance. The mechanical eyes inlaid on the side of his head flashed with a faint red light. Although the Omega system was offline, many of the implants on the ancient dragon's body were very old technology. They were inefficient, but they could operate on their own without the Omega.
After looking into the distance for a long time, Andal finally broke the silence. "Is this really Tarlonde?"
"This is what it looks like now … I have seen it in countless dreams and in the 'revelations' shown to me by the gods." Helagol took a step forward. Under the feet of the golden Giant Dragon, the scorching dry land cracked inch by inch. The rocks, which had become extremely fragile in the high temperature, crumbled into dust. "… Andal, Balogel, what I see now is even better than what I saw in the 'revelations'. After all, the three of us are still alive."
"Yeah, we are still alive." Balogel shook his head in disbelief. "So why are we still alive? What was that thing that appeared in the end … What pushed us back from space? "
"I don't know, but this is obviously a well-calculated 'rescue,'" Helagol said. "Without extremely precise calculations, we would not have come back alive without the power and attitude control."
The three ancient dragons fell into silence at the same time. This unexpected "survival" was too bizarre, and they could not find any clues in the situation in front of them. Even the wisest giant dragon could not figure out the slightest clue at this moment.
The silence lasted for a few minutes before Balogel said in a low voice, "So, what do we do next? What else can we do in this wasteland? "
Andal sighed. "Anyway, let's not talk about words anymore."
Helagol shook his head and said while thinking, "I need to think about what we are going to do next. This wasteland … We are probably the last remaining ancient dragons, and Omega should have —"
"Wait, Helagol," Andal suddenly interrupted him. The old black dragon looked up at the sky in the distance. "You just said that we are probably the last remaining ancient dragons?"
"Hmm?"
"Seems like something is flying over." Andal raised a giant wing and pointed to a direction in the sky. "… Don't you think it looks familiar?"
In the distant sky, the huge and old Black Dragon was rapidly approaching, and there was also a smaller Blue Dragon flying behind the Black Dragon. They had obviously discovered the crater on the ground, and without prior agreement, they sped up and rushed over in a diving posture.
Beside the crater, Andal, Helagol, and Balogel all saw the figures in the sky. Except for Balogel, who had not returned to Tarlonde for many years, the other two had even identified the two figures by sight. Helagol looked at the sky, a complicated emotion suddenly appeared in his topaz eyes. "… Perhaps, what we see is just Omega's node …"
As soon as he said that, Andal and Balogel both fell silent. They knew all the original orders of Omega, and naturally knew what would happen after the final battle. To avoid the influence of 'human nature', and to prevent Omega from developing a 'heart' and establishing a connection with the gods, they had set up Omega's operating logic a million years ago. The latter would operate in the most efficient, accurate, and ruthless way, and the future of the Dragons would be determined by Omega's AI. After thousands of test runs, Omega did not hesitate to implement the plan to erase the minds of all Dragons …
With complicated emotions, the three ancient dragons watched as the two figures flew closer and closer from afar. They watched as they slowed down at a low altitude and gradually approached the ground. They saw the old black dragon land steadily among the ruins, while the blue dragon seemed to have failed to see where he was going to land. He missed his footing and rolled and crawled to land in front of Balogel.
The atmosphere was a little awkward.
Balogel turned his head slightly and looked at the silent Helagol.
"Why do I feel that this doesn't look like Omega's node?"
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