Ch.270Dragon (7)

Wings that have been cut cannot fly. Normally, what’s needed for flight is wings, not an excess of power.

No matter how much monstrous strength one possesses, no matter how high one jumps, eventually one falls. Everything is destined to fall, and there’s no difference between large and small in that regard.

Llewellyn was no exception. He used his full strength in “Tree Splitter” to slice the dragon’s wings.

And in that moment of cutting, he knew. He felt the ominously overwhelming energy filling the flesh beneath, the power of a transcendent being.

The star cluster collapses. They say regeneration is infinite, but it takes time. Llewellyn’s eyes trembled slightly, and through the slit of his helmet, his eyes turned toward the falling dragon.

Flying through the air while maintaining his balance, Llewellyn barely controlled his body against his own acceleration, recalling his first fall that now felt like the distant past.

Unlike then, when he could only flail his limbs helplessly and wait for the approaching ground, Llewellyn now created anti-magic platforms in mid-air, striking them with his arms and legs to control his movement.

He applied brakes to his body as it began to spin. Using his heel to kick off an anti-magic foothold, he spun, offsetting his acceleration, then struck platforms with both arms to rotate in the opposite direction, canceling out the momentum.

Finally, his acceleration visibly decreased. As the surroundings, which had appeared like a dizzyingly blurred watercolor, began to regain their original form, Llewellyn came to a complete stop in mid-air.

Had it been on the ground, the earth would have rumbled loudly with upturned soil spewing dust, but here there was only air and anti-magic force.

Llewellyn, breathing heavily, watched the dragon fall.

The dragon plummeted with a hideous roar. Having lost both wings, when it crashed into the forest, it sent everything around it flying.

A dust cloud rose explosively, reminiscent of carpet bombing. Llewellyn lowered his posture slightly, covering his face from the dust cloud that extended to where he stood.

THWAAAAAAAAAK!

Pressure that blew away everything around swept over his body. Llewellyn lowered his stance and endured.

Trees flew away, and the undead caught in the blast were torn to pieces and scattered into the sky. Considering the size, it was unnatural.

‘The explosion’s impact is smaller than expected.’

Meaning the dragon hadn’t fallen completely intact. Llewellyn shook his head and ran through the air.

No, “ran” isn’t quite right. He essentially jumped down.

Like quickly descending stairs by skipping several steps at once, Llewellyn stepped on the anti-magic platforms he created and jumped, descending rapidly in a manner closer to falling than landing.

There was no need for explosive leaps. Without resisting gravity’s pull, Llewellyn gradually approached the ground.

Toward that ground, toward the newly formed crater, he saw forces converging.

Blood Knights and Inquisitors, Black Knights who had emerged from the Cradle’s impact and taken battle positions.

They were the elites of the Pantheon. Seeing them, Llewellyn unconsciously opened his mouth.

“Stop—!”

As a Blood Knight snapped his head up to look at his king.

The Blood Knight felt something strange tickling the edge of his senses and reflexively turned his body, pushing away those following him with his forearm.

Some stumbled in confusion, armor clashed against armor, and others fell in a tangled heap.

But compared to what was about to happen, none of that mattered. The Blood Knight saw black light extending toward him and moved reflexively.

Condensed blood. The blood magic flowing throughout his body expanded explosively.

ZZZZZZZZZZZRRRNG!

A thunderous roar. What the fallen tangled knights saw was:

Something invisible violently beating and breaking through the deployed blood barrier.

Even the Blood Knights, not easily startled, were shocked. The Black Knights frowned at the intense sensation of something that wasn’t magic.

Something that wasn’t magic was cutting through and swirling in a world made of magic. Like a dying insect convulsing, it was breaking through the blood barrier, yet its form remained invisible.

Invisible death seethed. But that wasn’t all.

They saw a massive shadow looming beyond the blood barrier.

The crazed dragon, launching an attack without hesitation despite the obvious impact of its fall. It approached. Ancient trees collapsed like crops pushed down by a beast.

Roaring, storm, and death lurking at the end.

The Blood Knight who had deployed the blood barrier had long been shattered into pieces by the formless death that surged from the entire maw.

“Scat—”

The Blood Knight standing behind tried urgently to order everyone to scatter, but it was too late.

The attack was already upon them. A massive maw tearing through the blood barrier.

Its size made an adult Tarrasque look like a baby. Feeling as if a black tidal wave was rising to engulf everything ahead, several Blood Knights stepped forward.

They couldn’t afford to lose the entire force. The king needed his army, so they deemed it the appropriate time for sacrifice.

But faster than the dragon’s seemingly targeted attack, faster than the Blood Knights’ sacrifice, faster than Llewellyn’s response as he rushed down—

SWACK! With a sound of splitting air, something struck the dragon’s head.

KUNG, a light collision sound. The dragon’s head neither tilted nor shattered, but toes embedded themselves between its thick flesh.

Those toes bent, followed by a heel striking toward the dragon’s crown.

ZZRNG, a circular shockwave spread outward.

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

The dragon’s maw closed, its raised head crashed to the ground, and the Blood Knights who had stepped forward to sacrifice themselves were thrown back by the shockwave.

Beyond the closed maw, a faint presence was felt. The foot that had struck the crown was withdrawn, and above it, a dragonoid leaped using her tail to whip the crown.

She took what was clearly a “stance.”

Not a martial art created for one individual to face another, but something that appeared designed to confront something larger and more powerful.

She opened her clenched fists to form claw shapes, and her two legs stepped on magical platforms in the air.

Her tail gathered and condensed the magic trailing behind her.

In the world, this martial art was called:

“Dragon Dropping…!”

The dragon raised its maw high toward the Dragon King. Death, invisible, lurked again.

But it didn’t reach her. The Dragon King leaped faster than the maw could turn toward her, stepping on magic that appeared diagonally in the air.

A diagonal leap toward the ground. Acceleration aided by gravity. At the end, her leg swung upward, kicking the dragon’s jaw as she barely passed by its maw.

It was a kick that seemed to make the bodies of the nearby Blood Knights vibrate with its impact. Naturally, the dragon’s head twisted, flesh and pieces of incomplete undead scattered.

But the dragon attacked again without concern. A front paw swinging as it turned its body. An attack that should be unavoidable while airborne. Yet it didn’t reach the Dragon King.

She was the Dragon King. An eccentric who had honed her entire martial art solely for facing dragons.

The larger the enemy, the closer to a dragon, the more explosively her chances of victory increased. Her skills were built to face things larger than herself.

So the attacks didn’t reach her. The Dragon King’s eyes drew a long golden line in the air, and her body accelerated by exploding the magic condensed behind her tail.

A quick rotation in mid-air.

The Dragon King rotated once in place, ostentatiously deflecting the front paw swung at her.

KUUUUUUUUUUNG!

The front paw struck the ground, and her tail swung widely. A perfect unity of offense and defense in one move.

Following the trajectory of her tail swing, the dragon’s skull split, and an undrawn trajectory followed the rising front paw.

“Miracle Manifestation.”

SWAAAAAAAAAACK, ZZRRRK!

The ground vomited its contents. Pressure that made even the dust cloud ripple followed. Divinity added to the seething anti-magic power. A mighty divine nature that made the world tremble with its pulse was making eyes glow white inside a helmet.

“Star Heart.”

The image of retrieving something even if it meant destroying the world enveloped Llewellyn’s entire body. A technique of wrapping nuclear flames around the body to make oneself a weapon seethed within him.

Dust that touched him burned away, and as shimmering heat haze surrounded his body, the great dragon’s front paw was severed and rolled on the ground.

“My King…!”

Not responding to the call, another dragon slayer met the Dragon King’s eyes as he landed in a crouched position.

The moment white-gray eyes met golden eyes, the two dragon slayers moved in different directions.

JJAK, ZZRRRRNG!

Llewellyn, leaping by straightening his bent knees, kicked upward at the dragon’s maw with his extended leg in black armor, while the Dragon King, who had risen high, struck downward with a kick that hammered the maw back down.

Pieces of flesh and bone scattered in all directions and settled on the ground, and the surviving Blood Knights thought they had gained the upper hand.

But in fact, they had not.

The maw, split vertically into two pieces, settled on the ground, and that massive body slumped down.

Llewellyn and the Dragon King’s faces contorted. The two dragon slayers, who had risen and plunged in a crossing pattern, clicked their tongue or bared their teeth with a growl as soon as they landed on the ground and anti-magic platforms respectively.

“Everyone, retreat!”

As Llewellyn shouted sharply and withdrew, they turned without hesitation and ran.

Cutting through the forest, through scattered flesh and undead, through broken tree fragments, they retreated toward the Pantheon.

Soon they understood why.

The shadow swelled. The sound and stench felt from behind swelled.

Trees caught in it flew upward, and undead that had followed to attack were completely crushed, unable even to scream as they were flattened.

When an Inquisitor running couldn’t resist his curiosity and rolled his eyes, he saw:

“Holy shit…!”

At the place where the dragon had been, flesh and bone fragments were explosively swelling, seemingly about to fill the entire forest, a concentration of life and death writhing with tentacles and seething with will.

As the Pantheon’s forces retreated, the Court Count’s eyes trembled slightly in the distance.

The presence felt strongly from this explosion of life was very familiar.

The presence of a certain man who had been obsessed with life and death, who had tried desperately to separate one from the other.

Who had despaired at failing to achieve his goal, and then given up to pursue his objective in another way.

The Court Count unconsciously uttered that name:

“Father…?”

Far away, in the middle of the forest, the dragon’s corpse that had been impaled pulsated.