Niddrog took some time to notice that two presences of comparable scale were approaching. Her head remained lowered over one of Yggdrasil's roots, jaws crushing primordial wood with almost lazy slowness while bluish currents traveled across the black plates of her body. The tree itself reacted to every bite. Golden lines lit beneath the bark and vanished when they reached the regions already corrupted by the dragon's teeth.
It was only when Crymsaria tore through a layer of dust clouds with her wings fully spread that Niddrog finally stopped chewing.
The enormous neck rose slowly, fragments of root still caught between her teeth, and two deep eyes opened beneath the crown of horns.
Crymsaria did not wait for a greeting.
Her mouth opened, and the inside of her throat turned white before becoming red. The fire that emerged did not spread like an ordinary flame; it came out compressed into a column so dense that the space around it seemed to bend away.
