Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Chapter 29 - Sky Island #5
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The biggest difference between mid-tier Dragonkin and low-tier Dragonkin was none other than magic.
“Blink!”
Feeling an instinctive sense of crisis from the pure white blade, Lagros immediately activated his magic.
Since it was magic stored through the power of the dragon, chanting the spell name was essentially no different from non-casting.
-Shing!
The ultravibration blade sliced through empty air.
Lagros, who had activated Blink by a hair's breadth to dodge the attack, reappeared about five meters away from where he had originally been slumped.
[Target acquired!]
[Firing micro missiles!]
Before Luther could even retrieve Clairheim Morr, which he had swung with great force, Integra shouted.
Having expended quite a few missiles on the way down to the control room, only two remained.
“Urk?!”
As the missiles launched from Luther's backpack swarmed like swifts, Lagros hurriedly deployed a shield spell.
-Kaboom!
The missile explosions and flames were blocked by the magical barrier, spreading sideways and obscuring Lagros's vision.
And Luther exploited that opening once more.
[Ultravibration blade reactivating!]
[Countdown!]
[8!]
Luther kicked off the ground amid the countdown that restarted the instant the missiles exploded.
Pinpointing Lagros's exact position through the thick smoke and flames via life signals, Luther twisted his waist sharply and swung Clairheim Morr once again.
[7!]
The pure white blade cleaved through the smoke, flames, and the already weakened magical barrier.
Only then did Lagros realize Luther's attack and desperately raised his right arm.
It was to block the sword strike with the gauntlet on his forearm.
[6!]
But it was impossible.
The blade, vibrating at the micrometer level, showed no sign of stopping.
It sliced through not only steel but also Lagros's tough scales, muscles, and bones in an instant.
“Gaaahk!”
As his thick arm hit the floor, blood spurted up like a fountain from the cross-section of the wound.
“B-Blink!”
Lagros screamed like a banshee.
He anticipated Luther's follow-up attack.
[5!]
[Emergency stop!]
[Remaining time: 4 seconds!]
The vibrating blade halted.
Luther, who had slashed through the spot where Lagros had stood moments ago, immediately detected life signals and located where Lagros had Blinked to this time.
It was seven meters back, in a diagonal direction.
And it was right then.
[Master! The energy control device is exploding!]
[Brace for impact!]
“High Priest!”
Shouting like lightning, Luther lowered his stance and crouched. Integra shouted again.
[Night Wing! Bunker mode!]
-Shrrk!
The two jet-black wings not only completely enveloped Luther but also dug into the floor to seal any gaps while fixing his posture in place.
Meanwhile, the High Priest, who had reflexively looked up at Luther's call, saw his form and threw himself toward Sandalphon while casting divine magic.
He recalled the story he had heard on the way to the control room.
“Wall of the Sea!”
He chased money, power, and women, but a High Priest was still a High Priest.
Water droplets formed in midair rapidly multiplied, becoming a barrier of water that enveloped the High Priest and Sandalphon.
And at that moment, Lagros, who had barely stanched his wound, looked at Luther and the High Priest with eyes mixed with bewilderment.
The series of sudden events had been too abrupt, but Luther choosing defense over attack rang alarm bells in Lagros's instincts.
Something was coming.
He needed to deploy defensive magic.
Lagros's intuition was spot on. The problem was that it was too late.
-Kaboom!
A colossal roar erupted, incomparable to anything before. The explosion was immense as well.
The shock and blast from the explosion of the entire C Section where the energy control device was located shook the Sky Island madly.
“Kieek!”
“Uwaaa!”
The massive explosion at close range spared not even B Section, where the control room was.
Some sections collapsed completely, and Hecatoncheires' wyrmlings and combatants fell outside the Sky Island or were hurled into the air by the fierce winds.
“Keuk!”
Lagros too rolled across the floor, unable to maintain balance, before crashing hard into a wall.
Integra continued reporting the situation.
[C Section has collapsed.]
[70% of it has been obliterated by the explosion, and the remaining debris is falling to the ground.]
Even just hearing the description painted a vivid picture.
From the capital, it would look like a rain of fire pouring from the sky.
[With the energy control device gone, energy supply to A and B Sections will definitely be disrupted.]
[Unable to predict how much longer it can stay afloat right now.]
[Separating A and B Sections to minimize damage.]
Having lost its power source, the Sky Island's future after exhausting remaining power was inevitable plummeting.
To lessen the impact upon falling, the best option was to split the Sky Island itself.
“Integra! Lagros's status?!”
[Healing himself with recovery magic and straightening his posture.]
[He's about to attack soon!]
Lagros rose to his feet. Though inside Night Wing, Luther could feel the immense magical pressure emanating from him.
He had severed one arm with a surprise attack, but going toe-to-toe with a mid-tier Dragonkin head-on was still beyond him.
Thus, Luther ordered without hesitation.
“Separate!”
[Separating B Section!]
-Kaboom!
The Sky Island—no, precisely B Section containing the control room—shook once more.
Lagros, who had just steadied himself, slumped again, and Luther unfurled Night Wing and looked up.
[Initiating control room self-destruct sequence!]
[Countdown: 10 seconds!]
[Retrieving Sea Key!]
A small drone attached to the console extracted the Sea Key, and the countdown began.
Luther sprayed flames from his mid-range flamethrower toward Lagros before launching himself toward the High Priest and Sandalphon.
“You worm!”
Lagros dispersed the flamethrower's flames with a mana-infused roar.
But since it was just a delaying tactic anyway, Luther ignored it and shouted and gestured to the High Priest.
“To the sky!”
It was the escape order.
Sandalphon, his wounds healed, strongly embraced the cursing High Priest's waist and stood, while Luther spread Night Wing.
And at that instant, Integra's countdown continued.
[8!]
[7!]
[6!]
“Jump!”
Lagros formed a massive orb of light in his remaining left hand.
Sandalphon threw himself toward the corridor beyond—now open air due to the section split.
The High Priest screamed, and amid the raging winds, flames erupted from Luther's backpack.
[3!]
[2!]
[1!]
-Kaboom!
The control room exploded.
Flames and the explosion filled the control room, swelling outward and spreading into the air.
-Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was a chain reaction.
Luther, having spread Night Wing wide and soared into the sky, looked down below.
Sandalphon, holding the High Priest in one arm, floated within a massive water droplet, wearing a cool smile. The High Priest's divine magic had activated just in time.
[Master! B Section's buoyancy is failing!]
[Projected landing zone is the sea, but the massive impact will affect the surface as well.]
Unlike A Section, which was still afloat perhaps due to the control room explosion's aftermath, B Section's altitude was gradually dropping.
It would soon lose buoyancy entirely and plummet rapidly toward the ground.
But Luther couldn't focus on what would happen soon. Massive life signals emanated from the exploding, distancing control room.
“Integra! Defend!”
At Luther's command, a colossal pillar of light, at least five meters in diameter, surged from the exploding control room and struck Luther.
-Kaboom!
Thanks to Night Wing deploying in front of him at the last second, he avoided a direct hit, but even Night Wing had limits.
It wasn't proper defense mode—just hastily blocking the front—so nanomachines began disintegrating from the point of direct contact with the light pillar.
[Master! Can't hold! We need to withdraw!]
Luther was already being pushed skyward by the light pillar.
Witnessing Night Wing heat up red-hot and collapse before his eyes, Luther issued complex orders to Integra.
[Sever Night Wing!]
[Boosters to max output!]
Integra severed more than half of Night Wing while activating the backpack boosters at maximum.
The severed Night Wing was swept into the light pillar and annihilated, allowing Luther to barely soar above and evade it.
[Remaining Night Wing insufficient for flight.]
[Must land on B Section.]
[Master! Life signals surging again from the control room!]
Fortunately, this time it wasn't an attack.
But what entered Luther's eyes as he nearly crash-landed on B Section's surface was far from hopeful.
“““Graaaaaarararara-!”””
It was a triple roar.
A three-headed earth dragon bursting through the explosion.
That massive serpent, at least twenty meters long, was Lagros's true form.
Unlike the wolf-like quadruped Balboa, Lagros was fundamentally serpentine.
It had legs, but they were short, compensated by an extremely long neck reminiscent of the legendary Hydra.
[How is that thing flying without wings?!]
Wingless as it was, Lagros was undoubtedly airborne.
And Luther knew the secret.
“Each of its three heads uses different magic!”
The three heads didn't possess separate wills.
Their combined whole was Lagros.
But Lagros could cast three spells simultaneously with his three heads, and that triple casting was precisely why he was a mid-tier Dragonkin.
[Self-recovery at 76%!]
[Fractured bones mended. Mobility restored.]
Standing on his legs broken during the fall, Luther took a deep breath.
His bones and muscles screamed in agony, and over half his nanosuit's outer layer had peeled off while dodging the light pillar, but he wasn't the only one far from normal.
Lagros, floating in midair with one head casting flight magic, was—if anything—even more battered.
One arm severed by Luther, and he had taken the control room explosion head-on.
Over half his scales were stripped, and his originally blue flesh was caked in dark red blood, making him look like a red dragon rather than a blue one.
But he couldn't relax.
Lagros's wounds were healing at a rapid pace. Clearly, one head was using recovery magic.
While casting two spells simultaneously and scanning surroundings, Lagros's gaze locked onto Luther.
He had been searching for Luther since escaping the control room.
‘Mana consumption is high.’
It wasn't just the light pillar that destroyed Night Wing.
He had undoubtedly cast magic quite inefficiently inside the control room to protect himself and sustain his life.
Now was the time.
He couldn't miss this opportunity.
“Going!”
Shouting loudly on purpose, Luther gripped Clairheim Morr with both hands and charged toward Lagros's position.
Mad winds howled over the already descending B Section, but they couldn't halt Luther's charge.
“Insolent fool!”
Lagros, landing on B Section's surface, fixed his gaze on Luther and began casting three spells simultaneously.
Luther recalled Lagros from the game.
And kept in mind the spells he had used so far.
[Lagros's life signals amplifying.]
[High-energy patterns manifesting ahead—analysis complete.]
[Recovery magic still active. The other two spells—]
That was it.
No time left to continue.
Lagros cast two spells, and Luther hurled a bomb from his waist forward.
-Boom!
Like the missiles, it was a scroll-embedded bomb.
Before Lagros's spells could strike, it exploded, erecting a thick ice wall before Luther's eyes. Then, Lagros's dual flame spells combined into an infernal conflagration poured over it.
-Kwahaa-!
The makeshift ice wall melted instantly, creating thick fog in a blink.
It was the effect of the cloud scroll inside the bomb.
“Cunning rat!”
Roaring in fury at the vision-obscuring trick, Lagros continued recovery magic while casting night vision to peer through the smoke, but couldn't find Luther.
Had he used cold magic?
In panic, Lagros dispelled the fog with a gale spell.
And at that instant, as if he had anticipated everything, Luther shot out from the direction the fog was blown away.
“Urk?!”
Having already used all three spells, Lagros desperately twisted to strike Luther with his tail but froze for a moment.
Because of Clairheim Morr in Luther's charging hand.
The divine sword that had severed his gauntlet and right arm in one stroke.
In the end, Lagros spat flames from two mouths instead of swinging his tail, and rather than charging through or slashing them, Luther threw himself sideways.
The entire charge had been a feint to draw Lagros's attention.
“Uoooooo!”
With a mighty kiai, Sandalphon charged from behind Lagros and thrust his fist.
It seemed reckless against an earth dragon twenty meters long, but the fist belonged to the Giant of the Sea, Sandalphon.
His fist, instantly enlarged to nearly seven meters tall, proved effective enough.
“Keuk!”
Lagros, bearing the full brunt of Sandalphon's superhuman strength, twisted his waist and cried out in pain.
But Sandalphon didn't stop; he unleashed a barrage at Lagros.
Grabbing Lagros's shoulder and slamming him to the ground, he stomped wildly on his waist and back. Even a powerful mid-tier Dragonkin had no immediate means to endure.
“Kraaa!”
But he was still a mid-tier Dragonkin.
With no focus to cast, Lagros exploded mana to repel Sandalphon before hastily rising.
Thinking to create distance first, he immediately cast flight magic.
But right then.
“Don't run! Fight back! With the Pressure of the Sea upon you!”
It was the High Priest.
The divine magic he had prepared while Sandalphon pummeled Lagros crushed down on Lagros's head just as it was about to lift.
A gravity spell mimicking deep-sea pressure.
“Kraaa!”
Lagros was smashed to the ground.
Sandalphon, repelled by the mana burst and covered in blood, staggered to his feet, and the desperate Lagros reverted to Dragonkin form.
He planned to block the High Priest's gravity magic momentarily with the mana field from transforming, then escape.
And Lagros's calculation wasn't wrong.
Freed temporarily from the deep-sea pressure by the mana field, he rolled urgently out of the gravity spell's range.
Just as Luther had predicted.
[Final 4 seconds!]
Clairheim Morr transformed back into an ultravibration sword.
Lagros, barely standing, hurriedly deployed defensive magic, but it was futile.
[Astral Deva! Form 3: Moon Cleaver!]
The sword angel's swordsmanship added to Luther's power and speed.
The sword cleaved through the translucent magical barrier in one stroke, then pierced Lagros's waist.
“Nooooo—!”
Before Lagros's scream could end, his waist was bisected.
Luther spun urgently, slashing the upper body once more, and Lagros's torso fell to the ground in two pieces.
“Kak! Kuk!”
Only the right shoulder, head, and chest remained as Lagros writhed, vomiting blood.
Severed from the dragon heart, forcibly generating mana was impossible.
Even for a mid-tier Dragonkin, this was fatal.
[Shutting down Clairheim Morr!]
[Master! We won!]
Luther felt the victory too. But it was too soon to relax.
[B Section power completely lost!]
[B Section will crash in 5 seconds!]
Integra, who had been cheering and jumping in her cheerleader outfit, turned urgent again and shouted.
Luther grabbed the left chest area housing Lagros's dragon heart before delivering a confirming energy round to the severed head.
“Luther! Hurry!”
Sandalphon, sensing anomaly, shouted while scooping up the High Priest.
Luther first soared high using even backpack boosters and asked Integra.
“Night Wing?”
[Inoperable!]
[Using boosters max to approach High Priest!]
And B Section began its fall.
To Luther, it felt like the ground suddenly vanished beneath him.
“This way!”
Sandalphon, who had instantly enlarged, caught Luther mid-booster flight.
But the floating water droplet burst as a result, forcing the cursing High Priest to cast divine magic again.
-Kaboom-!
B Section crashed.
The landing zone would be the sea as Integra predicted, but it would surely raise massive waves, if not a full tsunami.
But Luther wasn't too worried.
Not due to complacency that the damage would be minor compared to a tsunami.
Another card he had summoned right after the capital's assault.
“Barrier!”
Ash, halo gleaming pure white and light wings spread wide, summoned a barrier of light.
Even with a saint's power, the light barrier couldn't block all the massive waves, but Ash added it not right at the crash site but atop the palace walls.
-Kaboom!
The high waves from B Section's fall surged toward the palace but couldn't surmount the light barrier.
Weakened by the time it reached the palace, the waves shattered against the light barrier and scattered away.
[Blocked it! Success!]
Integra hugged Luther's neck in joy.
Luther looked toward the palace walls below the water droplet.
There was Ash, slumped on the wall, panting.
Too far to discern her expression, but he could guess.
She was surely exhaling in relief with a deathly exhausted face.
[Master! Grand General pushing back the wyrmlings!]
He now noticed the ground situation, which he had ignored amid the Sky Island battle.
The Guard led by the Grand General was herding the ground wyrmlings into one spot.
And right then.
[Sir Luther, can you hear me?]
[Aru rescued. Escaping now.]
It was Queen Reina's voice.
Luther reflexively looked up at A Section high in the sky and clenched his fist.
He saw Queen Reina, transformed into a dragon, flying up.
[Master! Total success! Just safely crash A Section now!]
Lagros defeated, Aru rescued.
With the ritual device shut down too, as Integra said, just crashing the Sky Island meant perfect success.
But at that very instant.
Ash's face, slumped on the wall gazing skyward, stiffened.
Queen Reina, smiling brightly down at Luther, also sensed the anomaly.
[M-Master?]
Integra's anxious voice.
Luther looked at A Section and realized.
The enemy still had one unforeseen worst-case card left.