Ch.932Death That Comes in an Instant

A body stained red with flowing blood. Yet Ismenios was certain of victory.

This wasn’t speculation born from a dragon’s typical arrogance, but a cold and utterly dispassionate assessment of reality.

“Futile struggling. How much time do you have left? Ten minutes? Half an hour?”

The wielder of Gram possessed the ability to wound a dragon’s body and cut off its breath, but the time he could maintain such strength wasn’t very long.

It was the difference in capacity rather than output that was cementing Ismenios’s victory.

At best, Demian was under twenty years old, while Ismenios had lived for over two thousand years—the total accumulated power between them was on completely different levels.

“I’ll wait as long as necessary. For the moment you become a powerless worm!”

Thus Ismenios declared proudly, spreading his two wings wide.

The moment Demian’s Karma was depleted to the point he couldn’t even maintain “Skywalk”—that moment would be his end.

That’s when it happened.

– Thwack!

A small arrow shot from somewhere along the wall embedded itself in Ismenios’s wing joint.

“What is this, a needle? Hah, this couldn’t even kill a single dog—”

As Ismenios was about to sneer with mockery at the slight stinging sensation in his wing,

“I don’t think so.”

Along with the voice of the girl who hadn’t spoken a single word since the battle began,

– CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

The arrow lodged in his wing rapidly expanded, returning to the form of a massive pillar.

It crushed all surrounding flesh, muscle, and even bone.

“KYAAAAAK—! What is this…!”

For the first time since the battle began, Ismenios screamed, twisting his entire body in agony.

The arrow had grown enormous, threatening to tear his wing joint completely off.

Moreover, giant tree roots emerged from the pillar-like arrow like writhing tentacles, burrowing into his wing and tearing it apart.

– CRACK!

Millia’s sniper shot—a Tale of Heroes compressed into an arrow and fired from the World Tree’s bow.

This fatal strike, which she had been patiently waiting for just this one opportunity, mercilessly tore through the dragon’s wing, ripping it out completely from the root.

“KYAHAAAAAK—!”

Ismenios lost one wing and descended sharply, severely unbalanced.

“Well done, Millia!”

Demian accelerated to seize the opportunity, aiming to cut off the dragon’s other wing and cause him to crash completely.

“GET AWAY!”

Ismenios, his reason momentarily gone from the pain, opened his mouth wide and released his breath.

– SCREEEECH!

A sharp resonating sound like nails scraping across a chalkboard.

“Kuh…!”

The moment the sound reverberated through the air, Demian coughed blood and was thrown backward as if struck by an invisible mace that hammered his entire body.

An invisible shockwave that shattered targets by violently vibrating the air—this was Ismenios’s breath, which he had been saving so carefully.

Even the remarkably strengthened Demian couldn’t properly react and was thrown back after taking the full impact. Something invisible had struck him at the speed of sound.

If he hadn’t reflexively raised the holy sword’s blade like a shield and been wearing winter armor reinforced with Amitamir’s scales, he would have suffered fatal wounds.

“KRAAAAA! Not yet enough!”

Ismenios took another deep breath.

His breath had the advantage of speed and invisibility, though its power was relatively weak. To ensure killing his enemy, one breath wasn’t enough.

“KRrrrr…!”

As the golden sand dragon inflated his lungs to their fullest to release another invisible breath,

“You think I’ll let you!”

With a thunderous shout, a massive shadow loomed over the dragon’s head as he had descended near the wall due to his damaged wing.

Joshua, who had leapt from the wall the moment he saw Demian being thrown back.

He had left both his sword and shield on the wall, and as he descended toward the dragon with arms spread wide, he infused his entire body with his soul, expanding it.

【Giant Hunting】

The culmination he had finally achieved after delving deeper and deeper into his own Tale of Heroes.

“Hahahahaha!”

Joshua, transformed into a thirty-meter giant, crashed into the dragon’s body like a meteor, his laughter shaking the heavens.

– BOOM!

A thunderous explosion like lightning striking the earth.

“KRAAAAAK-!”

Ismenios screamed rather than breathing out, his neck and tail writhing from the intense impact transmitted through his spine.

“A giant? What kind of trick is this!”

A roar filled with rage. The dragon’s gaping mouth stretched toward the giant Joshua’s head.

Joshua quickly moved his head aside to avoid the dragon’s jaws, but Ismenios, as if anticipating this, changed direction and bit down hard on Joshua’s right arm.

– CRUNCH!

The giant’s right arm was crushed and torn off, armor and all.

“Kugh…!”

Even Amitamir’s scales couldn’t withstand the biting force of a direct attack from one of its own kind. Joshua grimaced, suppressing a scream as he lost his arm in an instant.

“Fine, take it!”

Then he shouted boldly.

“I’ll take one of yours too!”

I’ll gladly give you one arm.

So, give me your wing in return.

Joshua’s left hand and teeth dug into Ismenios’s remaining wing joint and tore it apart roughly. Like ripping apart tough meat with hands and teeth.

– RIIIIIP!

With a tearing sound like a hundred pieces of leather being ripped apart at once, Ismenios’s other wing was completely torn off and fell toward the ground.

“GYAAAAAOOOOAK!”

Ismenios let out a truly agonized scream of pain and fury.

The dragon’s tail wrapped around the giant Joshua’s ankle like a snake, then whipped him away with a violent swing.

“Kuhk…!”

Joshua could maintain his giant transformation for only five seconds.

As his duration reached its limit and he returned to human size, Joshua was thrown away with a groan and crashed into the middle of the wall like a catapult projectile.

– BOOM!

A collision that shook the entire wall.

Joshua had tried to minimize the damage by surrounding himself with Karma’s power just before impact, but it wasn’t enough to withstand such a shock.

“Kugh…”

Joshua, his spine and internal organs shattered, slumped against the wall where he was embedded like a stake, coughing blood.

“GRAAAAAK-!”

Ismenios, still not satisfied, stared only at Joshua as he fell, opening his massive mouth wide.

He intended to fire another breath and shatter him to pieces.

However, just as he took a deep breath to charge his breath,

“Kchk…?!”

A strange choking sound erupted from the dragon’s open mouth.

‘My breath…!’

At the moment he tried to inhale a large amount of air, the area around his head became a vacuum, suddenly blocking his breathing.

“—I might fall for it once, but did you really think I’d let it happen twice?”

The culprit.

Ophelia, who had interfered with the sand dragon’s spatial distortion field to make even the air flow around him, looked down at the falling dragon with a sneer.

She had exhausted all her mana with that one interference, but it was well worth it to block the dragon’s breath and save Joshua’s life.

“Such petty tricks…!”

Just as Ismenios realized the cause and temporarily removed his spatial distortion field to break Ophelia’s interference,

“Finally dropped that mana field.”

Demian, who had barely recovered from the impact of the dragon’s breath using healing miracles, aimed the tip of his greatsword at him and fired a massive beam of pure white light.

The Church of Elpinel’s ultimate attack miracle.

Heaven’s Fury.

The holy light bombardment, like divine wrath, struck the dragon’s body like divine punishment.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK—!”

The torrent of holy light, filled with Elpinel’s fury, tore the dragon’s scales to shreds and burned his flesh to ashes.

Ismenios fell toward the ground like a meteor, letting out a thunderous scream of unbearable agony.

– BOOOOOM!

A roar that shook the earth. The bedrock cracked and heaved from the impact, and shattered fragments rose like waves, scattering in all directions.

“What is this, a buy-one-get-one-free deal?”

Haschal, who had been thrown back after being hit by Kudsedra’s tail, let out a hollow laugh.

As soon as she came up to the surface, a dragon had been delivered beside her like a gift.

“Gr…aaag…! What…! Wait, no…!”

Ismenios, groaning in agony after being directly hit by Heaven’s Fury, had just managed to raise his body when he spotted Haschal and widened his eyes in shock.

The distance was too close.

Too close to redeploy his spatial distortion field!

“Oh yes.”

Haschal smiled faintly as she drew upon her Karma’s power and spread it toward the world.

【Defying Fate】

A Tale of Heroes with reduced output, slowing time rather than stopping it completely.

Haschal approached at zero distance at a speed that made it difficult for Ismenios to even react, then withdrew Defying Fate and thrust Durandal, infused with the power of severance.

– CRUNCH!

The human world’s strongest knight pierced through the golden dragon’s bulging eye, tearing through the opposite eyeball as she emerged.

“Death always comes in an instant, you know?”

Haschal let out a predatory laugh like a wolf finishing its hunt as she completely penetrated the dragon’s head, pulverizing everything inside.

While dripping a mixture of blood, brain matter, and gray matter fragments all over her body.

– BOOM!

The dragon’s body, now brainless, collapsed helplessly with a thunderous sound.