Ch.165Chapter 165 – Flash

‘My body feels light.’

That was the first thought that came to mind as I flew through the sky wearing the white dragon’s armor.

My body, which until now had been barely able to move due to pain, was moving freely.

However, I wasn’t completely unrestrained.

‘My heart is beating incredibly fast.’

It was as if I was squeezing out tremendous power, my heart pounding at a pace that frightened even myself.

This was definitely not my body returning to normal.

I was already pushing myself to fight in an overexerted state.

It probably just felt like my body had temporarily returned to normal because I had rapidly drawn out power beyond my limits for a brief moment.

‘I can’t drag this out for too long.’

If I prolonged this state, I would surely reach a point of no return.

I needed to defeat that monster as quickly as possible.

I looked at the monster.

Its eyes were trembling widely, perhaps feeling fear as it gazed at me.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

After swinging my halberd and taking a stance, I flew toward it rapidly.

In response, the monster let out another silent roar and began swinging its arms at me.

“Not there!”

I immediately focused on my halberd, and a blue energy enveloped it.

I swung the magic-coated halberd toward the creature’s arm.

-SLASH!

With a terrifying sound, the monster’s arm flew into the sky.

As I watched its arm trace a slow-motion arc through the air, I quietly thought:

‘It’s become sharper.’

The monster’s skin wasn’t hard enough to deflect my weapon.

But it also shouldn’t have been weak enough for me to sever its arm so easily.

‘Does coating a weapon with magic make it sharper?’

The thought came to me almost instinctively.

And I felt it was probably correct.

‘That’s useful.’

As I finished that thought, I turned my attention back to the monster.

It was in the middle of swinging its tail.

“As if I’d get hit by that!”

If we were fighting on the ground with our feet planted, it might be different, but now that I could fly, a tail attack was meaningless—I could simply dodge it.

The tail made a frightening sound as it cut through the air, but I was already positioned above it.

I quickly dove toward the monster’s back and grabbed its tail.

“My turn, isn’t it?”

As I said that, I concentrated my power.

This time, red lightning began to flow across the armor.

Then, without much effort, the monster’s body lifted into the air.

‘So this is the power of a dragon.’

Red lightning—the dragon’s power.

Blue energy—the dragon’s magic.

If until now I had only been using fragments of that power…

‘Now I can use it almost completely.’

Thinking about how terrifying the power contained within me was, I flew upward.

Without hesitation, I lifted the monster, spun using my body as an axis, and threw it.

The monster flew toward the outside of the city wall, looking like a child tossing a toy.

I quickly accelerated to chase after the flying monster and kicked it toward the ground.

-BOOM!!

Conveniently, there were many monsters below the city wall.

The giant puppet that was once a wyvern crushed many monsters beneath it.

The crushed monsters stopped moving altogether.

As I descended toward the ground, the monster began to struggle, flapping its wings to rise again.

After rolling its eyes around while looking at me for a moment, the monster soon let out another silent roar and charged at me again.

“Here I come!”

I flew toward the monster as well, and we began to clash in mid-air.

I quickly dodged as the monster swung its claws and tail.

Then I countered by swinging my weapon, inflicting wounds.

Whenever it showed signs of retreating, I would get ahead of it and deliver punches and kicks.

I was completely overwhelming the monster.

‘It’s weak.’

The monster could no longer properly respond to me.

Belatedly realizing it couldn’t match my speed, the monster began to keep some distance from me.

Then its eyes started to glow.

“Trying to shoot heat rays?”

I asked, guessing that was obviously what it was about to do, and in response, heat rays shot from its eyes.

The heat rays, aimed precisely at me, reached right in front of me.

They were fast—perhaps the fastest heat rays the monster could produce.

“But I have no obligation to get hit.”

I easily dodged the heat rays that had come right up to my head.

Looking at the monster, I could see its eyes becoming bloodshot, as if it couldn’t believe what had happened.

Another silent roar echoed, and it shot heat rays at me again.

“Too slow.”

With a slight movement of my wings, I moved out of the line of fire just before being hit.

I approached the monster quickly while continuously dodging the heat rays it kept firing at me.

In an instant, I got close to it and rapidly pummeled it with my fists.

-THUD! THUD!!

The monster’s body began to distort from the impact of my fists.

Its imposing appearance from earlier was gradually crumbling.

As its body started to break apart, the monster panicked and immediately began moving its wings again.

The direction was the exact opposite of the city.

“I won’t let you escape!”

I quickly got ahead of it and kicked it.

+

Christina was blankly staring at the sky.

“My savior…”

It was the same white-armored figure she had seen before.

The difference was that now there were wings attached to the armor.

And unlike before, he seemed conscious as he fought brilliantly against the monster.

‘I hope he’ll be alright…’

Christina began to feel anxious.

At the thought that Kay was once again pushing himself, once again risking his life, Christina unconsciously lowered her head.

“Chris!”

“Miss Christina!”

“Sera? Lady Eve?”

She saw Sera and Eve running toward her.

Of course, Christina hadn’t witnessed Kay carrying them to the city wall.

As she went to join them, another voice was heard among the soldiers.

“Hey!”

“Lady Beatrice!”

Beatrice, looking visibly exhausted, forcibly joined them, completing their group.

Christina immediately looked at Sera and asked:

“What happened to our savior, how did he become like that…?”

“I don’t know. He collapsed once, then some kind of cocoon enveloped Kay for a moment, broke apart, and he emerged looking like that…”

Sera, the only one who had witnessed Kay’s transformation, explained, and Eve looked up at Kay with a worried expression.

“…I hope he’ll be alright…”

“He definitely won’t be, so we should prepare to carry him away as soon as this is over.”

Beatrice spoke with a tired expression.

“In that state, he’ll need emergency treatment as quickly as possible.”

“Let’s depart immediately. Come on!”

“Yes!”

With Eve’s command, the group began moving toward the section of the wall closest to Kay.

As they began to move, they could hear the voices of those around them.

-“What is that? A white demon?”

-“It’s God’s apostle! God hasn’t abandoned us!”

-“God’s apostle is defeating the demon!”

They saw hope beginning to bloom on the faces of the soldiers.

-“Hold on! We can overcome this! We can win!”

-“A large force is approaching from a distance! Judging by the flags, it seems Count Metis has sent reinforcements!”

-“Lord Sestas reports that he has almost cleared out the monsters! He should be here soon!”

With the various pieces of good news, the soldiers’ faces brightened even more, and they became more courageous.

As he began fighting at the risk of his life, hope was blossoming around them.

It was probably just a coincidence, but it seemed as if he had brought about a miracle.

For some reason, Christina was reminded of a legend.

‘Hero.’

One who appears when the world is in chaos, wielding tremendous power alone to restore order.

One who is summoned from another world and exhibits several times their normal strength in crisis situations.

One who can freely handle any weapon and recover enough to fight again no matter how injured.

‘He’s not that fortunate.’

The one fighting up there wasn’t a hero.

He was someone precious to them.

Unlike the legendary heroes, this was power that came with a price.

‘Lifespan…’

He was already living on borrowed time.

Christina couldn’t imagine what would happen to his body after this was over.

Looking at Sera, Eve, and Beatrice as they ran silently, Christina could tell that she wasn’t the only one worried about his condition.

Christina had already turned her gaze away from the faces of the surrounding soldiers.

Instead of their hopeful expressions, she fixed her eyes on him as he battled the monster, burning away his life.

‘Please come back to us.’

All she could do was pray for his safe return.

Christina found that fact frustrating.

+

It was one-sided.

Sometimes diving rapidly, sometimes quickly flying behind it.

Watching for openings, I tore off its wings.

I swung my weapon and delivered punches and kicks.

Each time, the monster was inevitably wounded and broken down.

The wyvern’s scales couldn’t withstand my attacks at all.

Its wings were now torn off, making it difficult to maintain balance in the air.

It barely resisted by swinging its remaining arm and tail and shooting heat rays, but each time, my attacks struck again.

And simultaneously, an alarm went off in my head.

‘I’m running out of time.’

I couldn’t continue the fight any longer than this.

‘Unnecessarily tough.’

Perhaps because it had become a puppet, it showed no signs of dying despite being beaten repeatedly.

The jewel that had been under its eyes had disappeared, perhaps having gone inside its body.

If I continued attacking like this, I would eventually catch it, but the timing would be very precarious.

‘…I need something big.’

What I needed now was one powerful strike.

A strong attack that could eliminate its body in one go.

‘Something I can hit it with…’

As I was considering my next move, a certain attack came to mind.

At the same time, complex magical formulas instantly organized themselves in my head.

“I don’t know anything about magic, though.”

But I could understand it.

I could feel it.

‘Yuto and Fia are assisting me.’

The will of the two dragons must be helping me use magic from within.

The fact that I could freely handle magic from earlier was probably because the two of them were helping me in my mental world.

I stretched out my hand and said:

“‘Come, storm.'”

A very simple activation phrase.

With just that, the surrounding air began to stir, eventually becoming a fierce wind that enveloped me.

‘I don’t know what this is, but…’

I could tell this would be powerful enough.

Within the storm, magic began to generate lightning, which concentrated in my hand.

The concentrated lightning soon became a blue flash.

The blue flash began to spark violently.

During this time, the monster let out another silent roar, then glared and shot heat rays.

“It won’t work.”

The heat rays scattered.

The storm I had created while using magic blocked the monster’s heat rays.

Such heat rays couldn’t penetrate the storm I had summoned.

Realizing it had no more options, the monster turned its back.

And the storm subsided.

“Here goes.”

I fired the blue lightning—something I couldn’t have produced alone—directly at the monster.

The monster, which had already started fleeing, looked back once and flew faster, but it was futile.

The lightning chased after it and eventually struck its body.

-CRACKLE!!

As the lightning struck the monster, it began to burn it.

Unable to withstand it any longer, the monster crashed to the ground along with the lightning.

But my attack was still continuing.

‘Now…!’

As I channeled more magic, the blue lightning intensified in response.

The lightning began to gather inside the monster’s body, and its eyes bulged out enormously.

Another silent roar echoed, and the monsters that had been watching blankly belatedly tried to flee.

But it was already too late.

‘Concentration complete.’

The lightning gathered in the monster’s body began to surge as if about to burst.

I clenched my fist toward the monster and uttered the final activation phrase.

“Impact.”

The lightning exploded from within the monster’s body.

The released lightning created a flash.

The blue flash engulfed the monster and the surrounding creatures.

The flash disappeared with an explosion.

The monsters vanished along with the flash.