And that electrifying lash seemed to act like a switch, fully reconnecting all the previously paralyzed neural pathways throughout Attilicia's body.
The kind of searing pain that pierced the heart.
If the pain David had felt earlier, when Tania slammed into him from midair and broke more than twenty of his ribs, could be likened to the pain of childbirth,
then Attilicia, whose body had been crushed to a pulp and was now slowly recovering, was probably experiencing...
pain equivalent to birthing an entire football team.
Attilicia's whole Drow body arched like a lobster, trembling uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, his eyes nearly splitting from the excruciating pain, he finally saw that...
crimson figure that never ceased to haunt his nightmares.
Attilicia growled the name etched into his very soul, "Lai Lian Dora Pafila Lufudoro Gon Sed Ponga!"
"Oh? You still remember my name. That's rather rare."
Pafila leaned in with her head, which, relative to his Drow form, seemed vast enough to blot out the sun. She wore a brilliant, sunny smile.
But to the Silver Dragon patriarch, who bore the scars of past trauma, that same smile seemed nothing but ferocious and cruel.
"I was actually planning to handle you myself," Pafila said.
"But I, Pafila, have only ever known slaughter and arson; I was afraid one careless move might end you. So, after some thought, I decided to let the children handle it.
"But now, it seems you've finally come back to life. It's good that you're alive. Bridget Carter Attilicia Antonella Swietlanden. Shouldn't we also settle our accounts? Hmm?"
Faced with this shameless Dragon Mother's 'reckoning,' Attilicia showed a rare moment of defiance.
Still regenerating, he struggled against the intense pain that could easily drive an ordinary Dragon mad and staggered to his feet.
He lifted his head to face the terrible figure he hadn't dared confront for ten years. His voice, surprisingly delicate for a demand, rang out, "Just name your price, Pafila. Including the debts owed by the children. I want to take David Uthos and Tania and leave together."
Before the Dragon Mother, her eyes narrowing with interest, could respond, David and Tania at the side grew anxious. David, in a flash of desperate inspiration, blurted out, "Don't, Dad! You've just gone bankrupt recently! What leverage do you have to negotiate with Mother?"
This contract I signed, he thought, though it's a deed of servitude, is also a protective talisman for critical moments! The kind that's absolutely priceless! If you buy out my contract now, and we run into serious trouble, who the hell would I turn to?!
In his haste, he completely sold out his dad.
"Oh? You've... gone bankrupt again? How did that happen? Tell me all about it." Pafila almost laughed outright.
"..." Attilicia's face turned crimson on the spot. But thankfully, in his Drow form, that skin color wasn't readily noticeable to other Dragons.
After listening to David's solicitous and witty explanation, Pafila, the legendary Red Dragon, burst into the most joyful and unrestrained laughter she had enjoyed in over a hundred years.
She laughed so hard she rolled on the mound of treasure in her nest, her tail thrashing and sending showers of jewels and gold into the air.
Then she looked up at the little love-dragon, who could barely hold his head high. Wiping away tears of mirth that steamed in the air with a flick of her tail, she struggled to suppress her laughter as she asked, "To be robbed blind by that old crone Tiamat, right to your face? You must be the first Metal Dragon for that to happen to, hahahaha! Attilicia, you truly have a gift for comedy! You're killing me!"
She was completely oblivious to David and Tania's expressions of utter shock.
They waited for a while, but when no divine punishment from the Chromatic Dragon Queen Tiamat descended, their shock deepened, feeling as if they had truly seen a ghost.
Only Attilicia, intimately familiar with Pafila, seemed unfazed by this behavior. His face flushed with indignation, he retorted, "What's so funny? That's a Dragon God! It's perfectly normal that I couldn't resist, isn't it?! Let's get back to the matter at hand. Name a price. I want to redeem my family. Of course, I might have to defer… a few years… before settling everything at once."
At this point, Attilicia's voice inevitably softened. After all, a Dragon without treasure struggles to speak boldly, ultimately lacking the necessary confidence.
However, the word 'family' seemed to finally strike a chord.
Pafila slowly let her smile fade. Her molten lava eyes narrowed to slits as she began to pace around him, the tip of her tail thudding against the ground rhythmically.
"So, just how many years will that be? Or is it another decade?"
"And how shall we calculate the interest? Attilicia, surely you haven't forgotten? When you fled from the Old Continent, from this very lair... you still owed me a rather large debt, didn't you?"
"I never even imagined you'd have the guts to come back. That's good. It proves you're a True Dragon. So, how should we calculate this debt?"
"Will it be another decade? Or perhaps you should figure it out yourself. Just how many decades will it take?"
As the Dragon Mother, now visibly agitated, pounded a deep pit into the ground with her tail, Attilicia, who only moments before had been full of spirit, could no longer withstand the terrifying mental pressure. He collapsed to his knees before the Dragon Mother with a thud.
Then he broke down, tears streaming, his handsome Drow features contorted in such a display of wretched grief that it would have moved a stone to pity.