Ch.181Total War. (5)

Olivia looked down at the ground. Red Dragon Eryas. His body had grown much larger since their last meeting.

Eryas wrinkled his brow deeply and inhaled. An ominous magical power emanated from his abdomen, which had swollen to its limit.

‘…He’s become much stronger than I thought.’

Dragons were a race whose growth was as slow as they were powerful. Such rapid growth wouldn’t make sense without some external factor.

‘This is your doing.’

Olivia thought this as she looked at Aria. Had she opened the magical realm of the Sun? Otherwise, the current situation couldn’t be explained.

But there shouldn’t have been any keys left. How?

“……”

Olivia’s pupils took on an even deeper blue hue. She had diverted part of her magical circuit pulsing in her heart to her thought circuit.

Tstststs…

Eryas, who had been flying at a terrifying speed, gradually slowed down. Her accelerated thoughts were outpacing time itself.

A small explosive-like impact occurred in her head. Her body and mind, stimulated by magical power, expanded her thinking capacity to its limit and instantly drew a conclusion.

‘…So it was time magic.’

She was glad she hadn’t attacked hastily. If that was the case, then Aria sitting on the cloud above must also be an illusion created by distorting space.

‘I thought something felt off.’

[Until the Demon Lord’s arrival: 1 hour]

She couldn’t waste power on Eryas. Dealing with Aria and the Demon Lord would be challenging enough.

That was also why she had only been observing without intervening in the battlefield.

The moment Olivia thought that far.

The ground beneath her feet was engulfed in flames. Olivia immediately used Blink to move backward and wrapped herself in a shield.

Eryas had somehow risen to the same altitude as Olivia. That blatant gaze. Olivia held back a scornful laugh at his recklessness, still charging at her despite being so thoroughly defeated before.

“What were you thinking, coming alone?”

Crack.

A blue, ice-cold magical power enveloped Olivia’s body.

“The you I remember was reckless, but not stupid.”

Olivia said this as she fired an ice essence.

Whoosh! Wings moved, and dark red flames engulfed the ice essence. It instantly vaporized, releasing steam.

[I wanted to prove it.]

“…Prove?”

Eryas nodded.

Aria had told him he couldn’t defeat Olivia. No matter how much stronger he had become, it was common sense that defeating a transcendent being who had barely managed a draw against six opponents was impossible. That’s why Aria had not permitted Eryas to advance. But Eryas himself had refused.

[You cannot kill me.]

“……”

[I can tell from your expression. You’re not even concerned about me. You’re treating me like an annoying insect.]

Eryas himself had once treated humans like insects.

But if Olivia still had such limitations, he thought he might have a chance.

Following Aria’s command could wait until after swallowing the humiliation of defeat. After all, he could always be healed by the druid.

Kill her.

[……]

Eryas’s hatred was no longer directed solely at Olivia. The ice essence he had just melted, the magical power contained within it was a very familiar type to Eryas, the Light Dragon.

An energy that shouldn’t exist in this world.

How could he not recognize it? That seemingly pure cold of mana.

What was hidden beneath its surface.

Eryas’s face slowly filled with hatred.

[Today I will.]

Whoosh! Countless magic circles formed in the surrounding sky. The surrounding clouds disappeared as if burning away in the unbearable heat.

[Kill you.]

A dragon’s body was a weapon in itself. Its wingbeats were typhoons, its tail a whip dozens of meters long.

Magic wouldn’t work. Eryas now knew his place. He couldn’t face Olivia with magic.

The tail shot forward at a fierce speed. Its thickness alone was enough to block the entire field of vision.

Yet she couldn’t dodge either. The distortion of space felt around the tail. If she dodged now, the forces below would be swept up, creating a catastrophe.

She would block it.

Crack! The cold air enveloping Olivia swelled greatly, creating countless sword shapes.

Kwang! The sky shook violently.

The tail advanced no further. It remained motionless as if stuck against a wall. Soon, swords that had penetrated between the scales emitted a deep cold.

[…How dare you!]

Eryas applied even more force, wrapping his entire body in flames. The swords couldn’t withstand the heat and began to melt.

The surrounding temperature rose exponentially, but it wasn’t a problem for Olivia. It was actually helpful. Until now, she couldn’t use grand magic because of the army below.

‘…It seems I can’t win with ordinary methods…’

Olivia thought as she watched Eryas spewing fierce flames.

Eryas had grown stronger. If the Eryas from five years ago had been this strong, he would have been subdued before Asmodeus appeared.

But.

‘Not as strong as me.’

As much as Eryas had grown stronger, no, even more so had Olivia grown stronger.

Was there another realm beyond truth? Or was it because she had stayed in this world for a long time and recognized the existence of “mana” more clearly?

No.

She already knew the answer.

It had been like this since five years ago when she was dragged into the demon realm.

In fact, there had been signs even before that. She had just denied it despite knowing.

Of course, she didn’t deny it now.

Steam flowed from where cold and heat met. The steam, infiltrated by Olivia’s magical power, soon turned into snow. Snow began to fall on the battlefield. Her blue eyes took on an even deeper blue hue.

Crackle!

One strike.

As blue lightning flashed, the sky split. In that instant, Eryas, perceiving the attack, tried to protect himself by creating a polygonal barrier, but it was futile.

With a sound like a drum tearing, a shockwave occurred, and lightning penetrated through the gaps in the barrier, piercing Eryas’s body.

Crash!

Dragon blood splattered in all directions. The smell of burning flesh stung the nose, and Eryas’s shattered body lost strength and fell.

But Olivia’s expression hardened instead.

“…Damn it.”

Olivia’s pupils sank coldly. Eryas’s body disappearing as if fading away. It was a very elaborate illusion magic.

‘Since when?’

Whoosh!

“…!”

Flames shot fiercely from behind. Eryas, whom she thought had fallen, was smiling with something close to mockery.

[How naive. Did you really think I would charge in alone?]

He had been receiving Aria’s assistance from the beginning.

Olivia’s pupils sank coldly.

Less than an hour remained until the Demon Lord’s arrival.

‘…I need to end this quickly, even if it’s risky.’

Crack…!

The temperature rapidly decreased to the limit that living beings could withstand, and frost appeared on her expressionless cheeks.

Snap!

As she flicked her pale fingers, the snowflakes stopped falling and began to rotate in place.

Kirik!

As the snowflakes rotating to their limit traced perfect circular trajectories, tens of thousands of pure white light beams crossed the void.

They aimed precisely at Eryas from all directions, each tracing different trajectories.

Crack!

In an instant, they shattered eight layers of barriers created in the null dimension like paper and penetrated between the scales.

[…!!]

A precise attack that read through Aria’s space distortion magic and targeted the most vulnerable spot. Eryas’s complexion turned deathly pale at the attack that accurately hit the gap.

How could magic that should have been deflected to another dimension reach him?

‘…How!’

The snowflakes that penetrated his blood vessels ravaged Eryas’s insides.

[Keu…keuuu…]

After instantly damaging his sensory organs and magical circuits, she quickly approached Eryas, who couldn’t regain his senses.

He was maintaining flight through superhuman willpower, but that was all. It would be fair to say he was barely alive.

“That’s why you shouldn’t have charged in.”

Olivia placed her hand on Eryas’s head. Just as she was about to freeze him completely.

[I shall not permit any further.]

A leisurely voice echoed in Olivia’s ear.

[Eryas must not fall so early.]

“…!”

Olivia’s gaze turned toward the direction of the imperial army’s camp.

From that place, easily thousands of meters away, Olivia’s distant spatial perception immediately recognized who was speaking to her from beyond.

Aria, who had walked out of the camp ignoring the restraints around her, looked this way and.

Flash!

The next moment, she appeared right in front of Olivia.