Ch.718Reason for Not Being Able to Escape

Nidhogg let out a roar filled with murderous intent as it flapped its wings toward the three people who had taken to the air to avoid its breath.

Demian, Perneisia, and Floheta. All three were mere insects compared to its massive body, but they were threats that couldn’t be ignored.

The attacks from these three contained enough power to pierce through its carapace and leave wounds.

Especially Demian’s slashes, which could dig into the dragon’s skeleton and inflict irreparable damage rather than mere wounds.

So it would kill them.

Nidhogg violently vibrated its thin inner wings to accelerate and charge forward. Like an unstoppable tidal wave.

—-

Two humans and one fairy, along with spirits and the dragon, continued their catastrophic battle using the sky above the island as their battlefield.

Fire, lightning, and storms raged through the air, while straight lines of black flames erased everything in their path, piercing through the clouds.

It was a terrifying sight rather than a majestic one.

“Somehow maintain a higher altitude than it. Make its breath target only us, not the island.”

Perneisia, who was continuously firing spirit arrows while riding a translucent eagle, turned to look at Floheta and Demian who had hitched a ride on her spirit.

She pointed her finger downward, indicating where Nidhogg’s dark mana flames had scorched the island as they passed.

Nidhogg’s breath boasted tremendous firepower, just like the legendary dragons of old. Enough to create a massive pool of lava in the middle of the street.

And that was with Lacy’s holy barrier absorbing most of the power. What would happen if such flames struck the island without any interference?

Floheta and Demian could imagine it too.

If the dragon simply flew around breathing fire downward, it wouldn’t even take ten minutes for Extrashafel to be annihilated.

Therefore, the three of them had to keep the dragon’s attention fixed in the air, preventing it from directing its breath toward the island.

Unless they wanted to watch the island melt away like shaved ice in midsummer.

“…Attack magic is practically meaningless. Most of it gets intercepted midway, and even when it hits, the dark mana prevents it from having proper power.”

Floheta wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve and bit her lip firmly.

Her magic could barely damage the dragon’s carapace, and it would be no exaggeration to say that she couldn’t land a proper hit at all.

Not only was there an overwhelming difference in power output, but dark mana also had an advantage in compatibility over regular mana.

The armor of dark mana, compressed at an incredible density and covering Nidhogg’s body without gaps, dispersed the mana of her spells and greatly weakened their power.

Magic that could pulverize black iron was reduced to being unable to even break a boulder.

“And… that’s not the only problem.”

Floheta continued in a dejected tone. There was another major issue beyond magic being ineffective.

“What else?”

“As you’ve probably guessed… that dragon is analyzing and mimicking my spells and those of other mages.”

At first she thought it was her imagination, but now she was certain.

Although there was the difference of using dark mana instead of regular mana, Nidhogg’s attacks had begun to take forms very similar to the magic used by her and other high-ranking mages.

There was no doubt. It was learning the principles, formulas, and effects of magic by directly experiencing them.

‘It’s only mimicking the phenomena rather than reaching the stage of freely applying the formulas, but…’

That alone was enough to make Floheta bite her lip.

“At this rate, the more we attack with magic, the stronger our enemy becomes.”

It meant that her power was not only ineffective but was actually benefiting the enemy.

“Then… just repeat the spells you’ve already shown and focus on interception and defense. Demian and I will handle the attacks. And get off, you’re heavy. You can fly on your own, can’t you?”

After giving brief instructions, Perneisia flapped the wind spirit’s wings and shook Floheta off.

Unlike Demian, who could only manage three or four aerial jumps at most, Floheta could float around using levitation magic, so there was no reason to keep carrying her and slow down the spirit.

“No, levitation magic isn’t that convenient…!”

Floheta was thrown off before she could finish her complaint. With a bewildered expression, she hastily gathered mana to catch her falling body with levitation magic.

“…Is that okay? That woman is the Imperial Archmage.”

“Why should I care about Imperial status? If she has complaints, tell her to come back after aging another four hundred years.”

Perneisia dismissed Demian’s concern with an irritable tone, not even looking in Floheta’s direction as she drew her bowstring.

“Um, senior, are you over four hundred years old…? If so, should I call you grandmother instead of…”

“…Want me to drop you too?”

“No.”

Perneisia turned her head sharply to glare at Demian. Her gaze contained such intense emotion that it reminded him of Haschal’s eyes, making Demian hastily wave his hands and shake his head.

He was merely trying to show proper respect to an elder, so he couldn’t understand why Perneisia was so irritated.

However, even if he didn’t understand the reason, he understood well enough that this wasn’t the atmosphere to nod or add another word.

Demian had that much sense.

Sense that Haschal’s fists had taught him.

“Then shut up and fight!”

After shooting a sharp rebuke at Demian, Perneisia accelerated the spirit she was riding on. To bring Demian, who was riding behind her, close enough to the dragon.

Perneisia would have preferred to keep as much distance as possible, but unfortunately, she had no other choice.

As unreliable as this human was, among the three of them, only Demian, who wielded the Jin greatsword like it was an extension of his limbs, could inflict real damage on the dragon.

—-

Another ten minutes passed like that.

Floheta devoted herself to flying through the air and neutralizing the magic fired by the dragon, while Perneisia repeatedly threw and caught Demian, firing spirit arrows until all the lesser spirits connected to her were depleted.

‘…We can’t win this.’

All Perneisia gained from those ten minutes of fighting was an increasingly certain premonition of defeat.

Floheta’s mana was beginning to bottom out after maintaining levitation magic while simultaneously firing high-level spells, and Perneisia herself had no more lesser spirits left to use for spirit arrows.

As for attacking the dragon directly with her wind spirit, the difference in power was too overwhelming to even consider engaging.

The dragonslayer ballistas fired by the humans on the ground were no longer effective either. Nidhogg, whose flank had been pierced by the ballista barrage, had roared in fury and rammed its body into a section of the wall.

A physical charge that the three of them couldn’t even think of stopping.

That single strike destroyed half of the dragonslayer ballistas and collapsed a section of Extrashafel’s triple walls into rubble.

The breath it exhaled immediately afterward vaporized a quarter of the island, along with the knights who had been fighting the dead there.

There was no chance of victory.

No, they were reaching their limit just trying to hold on.

‘…Should we retreat?’

Perneisia cautiously considered withdrawal. There was no point in continuing the fight.

Less than an hour had passed since the dragon had revealed itself, but despite fighting with all their might to stop it, already half the island had been transformed into a lava field.

It was clear that the time it would take for the remaining half to melt would be much shorter.

Floheta too seemed to be growing concerned for her life, as she was keeping a noticeably greater distance than before and conserving her mana. As if she was ready to fly away the moment someone else started to flee.

However, they couldn’t choose to flee so hastily. Because of the two men who were fighting as if retreat wasn’t even a concept in their minds.

“Rise! Rise and fight! What rests on your shoulders is not just your own lives. The fate of the entire Empire—no, the fate of all humanity lies in your hands!”

Leopold, covered in dust, was shouting while personally gripping the handle of a dragonslayer ballista and firing arrows. Because he was still fighting, Floheta couldn’t flee so easily.

If it had been when she was just a mage and he was a prince, it might have been different, but if word spread that the Archmage had abandoned the Emperor and fled, she wouldn’t be able to keep her life no matter where she went.

“Compared to sparring with Haschal, this is nothing…!”

Perneisia couldn’t flee either.

Honestly, she didn’t care about the Emperor or any of that, but… as if her sense of fear had been removed, she couldn’t leave Demian, who was riding on the dragon’s back swinging his greatsword.

Not because she cared for Demian, but because if she abandoned him and fled, there was a significant possibility that Haschal, their most important ally, would turn against her.

Though he didn’t make it obvious or show it clearly, Haschal displayed a curiously strong interest and obsession with Demian.

That obsession was certainly not romantic affection, nor was it anything like family love such as his relationship with the pink-haired girl.

If she had to compare it… it was closer to a warrior’s obsession with a peerless sword?

In any case, because of this, Perneisia couldn’t retreat hastily.