Ch.979Grand Duke Breakthrough

The rain evaporates in the intense flames. Hot steam wraps around my body, trailing behind me like a tail.

I soared high into the sky, spewing karma flames. Like an archer schoolgirl who casts off all the world’s shackles and bonds to seek happiness.

Of course, where I was heading was far from a happy place. Rather the opposite. More like a hell of fire. A hell where everything around burns in karma flames.

“Damn it, we’ve been had…!”

The two guardians, sensing my intention, shot spirit poetry at me with urgent expressions of dismay across their faces. Seven lower spirits transformed into arrows and pursued me.

“Stop her! We must stop her somehow…!”

Too late to stop me.

Their only way to halt my flight would have been to intercept with higher spirits’ power before I gained sufficient acceleration.

That opportunity had long vanished. The moment they were distracted by the dragon’s appearance and allowed my approach.

And when they froze in shock after two of their comrades were taken down instantly, failing to prevent my leap.

“Think you can stop me now?!”

I swing Durandal toward the pursuing elemental masses. Three slashes. Vacuum blades cut through the rain and collided with the spirit arrows, exploding on impact.

“Send my condolences to your kin!”

Their belated spirit poetry couldn’t even hope to catch my ankle. The firepower a lower spirit could exert alone had clear limitations.

“We won’t let you get away!”

The two guardians recalled all their other spirits, then summoned massive bird-shaped higher spirits and mounted them.

Higher wind spirits. Specimens with flight capabilities.

So they plan to pursue me on those.

It was somewhat unexpected. To think they would abandon control of their mass-produced guardians and patrollers to chase after me. Does this mean the capital and World Tree’s safety matters more than their subordinates’ lives?

…Well, I couldn’t say I didn’t understand. That’s how fairies are. If forced to choose between their parents and the World Tree, they’d pick the World Tree without hesitation.

“How foolish, you’re following me? Abandoning your subordinates down there?”

I fired vacuum slashes toward the wind giant bird flying through the rain, mocking it. Your choice was truly a foolish judgment.

“Piles of half-baked guardians and patrollers will accumulate. Looks like your family reunion will come sooner than expected?”

While patrollers might be one thing, mass-produced guardians were like puppets who inflexibly followed only regular guardians’ orders.

If their commander abandoned their post, they were fools who couldn’t even detect simple traps and would headfirst into death’s door.

“Such specimens, even if they’re annihilated, we can simply make more!”

“Even if they’re wiped out, if we can just stop you and Gram’s master…!”

The two guardians shouted as they pursued me.

Rather than sincere words, they seemed like excuses hastily concocted to reduce their guilt for throwing their subordinates away like stones.

“Oh, is that so? Such big dreams.”

I sneered with a tone that suggested I didn’t believe a word.

If mass-produced guardians and patrollers were forces that could be restored so easily, they would have wasted them like water from the beginning, engaging in extreme wars of attrition.

Conducting suicidal special attacks with disregard for life, endlessly repeating annihilation and restoration.

“Well, good luck with that. Though it’s futile!”

I increased my karma flame output and shot straight up with fire.

Against the pouring rain, I burrowed into the dark clouds above the great forest, finally breaking through to reach the sky beyond.

– Boom!

The dark clouds, torn apart by the heat, scattered like an explosion, spewing out a red comet.

A flash of light soaring toward the heavens against gravity. The werebeast’s leather dried in the heat, crackling as it burned.

“We won’t lose you!”

Two giant birds emerged in pursuit. Two higher spirits emitting a translucent blue light, wrapped in storms, shot upward.

I glanced down at them, then changed direction at a right angle, charging forward with a sonic boom.

Toward the massive tree visible in the distance. Toward the key that would end this war with our victory.

And then.

– Guuuuung…!

Sensing danger from the fire-breathing threat approaching at high speed, the forest god finally drew its sword.

—-

The ground trembled, echoing outward. Looking down, the vast green land spread out like a sea, shaking its body like waves.

Flocks of small birds took flight all at once like dust clouds, and forest animals in panic screamed as they desperately fled.

It was a harbinger.

A manifestation of survival instinct, literally struggling to escape from inevitable death.

– Guuuuung!

The vibration sound echoed once more. Simultaneously, enormous holes began to slowly open throughout the great forest.

Massive roots, each thicker than my torso, pushed aside surrounding trees and rose up, pouring down cascades of dirt.

Hundreds of these roots intertwined like nets, forming giant cylindrical barrels.

Alvheim’s—no, the World Tree’s anti-air defense weapons. Hundreds of wooden barrels emerged with earthquakes, aiming their muzzles at me.

And then, something resembling sunlight filled the hollow barrels—

– Kwaooooo!

The next moment, massive pillars of light covered the sky above.

—-

[It’s not fire, dodge it!]

‘I know that!’

The moment light filled the wooden root barrels, I took a deep breath, focusing all my attention on the ground.

Light and heat of the sun, photon bombardment that absorbed the life force of surrounding trees to fire.

Hundreds of photon cannons meant to shoot down dragons threatening the great forest were pure destructive light that decomposed everything they touched to the atomic level.

Not an attack that could be blocked by dragon scales or rune fire resistance. Even with the rune of collapse… it would probably only neutralize it for a moment at best.

But—

“It’s nothing if it doesn’t hit me!”

I increased my firepower, spewing karma flames from both elbows, back, and legs, diving between the brilliant pillars of light.

Like a bomber aircraft evading anti-aircraft fire.

– Kwaooooo—!

A beam of light passed by with a roar, grazing me. My fluttering clothes touched the light and disintegrated.

I quickly changed direction to avoid the light pillar, then immediately swerved again to evade another.

A flight path like a comet staggering drunkenly.

I endured the recoil of sharp turns, sudden stops, and rapid accelerations, threading through the photon cannon’s barrage like a sewing needle.

More of my clothes were torn away, but not a single beam touched my body.

“You can’t hit me!”

Photon cannons were weapons designed to shoot down massive flying objects like dragons or airships. They couldn’t possibly hit a small target like a human firing frantically!

『Keuooooooh!』

Moreover, support attacks were unfolding on the ground for my benefit.

Kudsedra, who had broken through underground passages to emerge on the surface.

As soon as it set foot on the ground, it let out a fierce roar, then violently rampaged, clawing and smashing every tree in sight with its tail.

There was no one to stop the destruction.

The World Tree’s photon cannons were meant for enemies in the sky. It was impossible to turn the muzzles toward a dragon rampaging on the ground.

– Crash!

Some giant trees extended their roots and trunks to attack Kudsedra, but such attacks couldn’t possibly stop the dragon’s frenzy.

『Kahaaaaak!』

Kudsedra, wrapped in flames, smashed through the wave of trees that tried to block it, and began destroying the photon cannons that had been firing at me one by one.

– Rumble…!

The World Tree, unable to stand by, created new dark clouds and poured heavy rain toward the dragon, but…

『Is that all? How laughable! Do you think mere raindrops can extinguish a dragon’s flames?!』

Kudsedra raised its head to stare directly at the dark clouds, then opened its mouth wide and breathed out flames.

– Kwaaaaaaaa—!

A pillar of fire far larger than Perlien’s sun sword. While the temperature might be similar, its sheer size made the overall firepower incomparably overwhelming.

Enough to pierce through the rain, penetrate the dark clouds, and completely scatter them.

『Krararararaah-!』

The downpour stopped instantly. Looking up at the sky flickering with all kinds of light, Kudsedra let out a roar of satisfaction.

『Behold and praise! I am Kudsedra, the Flame Dragon! The embodiment of legend that even ancient dragons failed to achieve. The conqueror and destroyer of the great forest!』

…He’s excited, really excited.

Perhaps it’s because he’s young for a dragon and has an immature personality. His voice was overflowing with joy.

Well, to be fair, it was something worth celebrating.

As far as I knew, throughout the continent’s history and the original setting, Nidhogg was the only dragon that had ever inflicted meaningful damage on the World Tree and great forest.

So he couldn’t help but revel in ecstasy.

Kudsedra was currently achieving something that no one except Nidhogg had ever accomplished.

Of course, since Nidhogg existed, he couldn’t be the first dragon to destroy the great forest… but hey, there’s a saying that even second place is an achievement, right?

Something like that.

It was a sufficiently great achievement on its own. Even if second place.