Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: Dragon's Descent
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A colossal body.
It had smashed the edge of the Colosseum entirely as it descended, its gaze upon me sharp and domineering.
The destroyer that had plummeted from the sky without warning.
It dominated the area as if Ovarna and Esther battling the imperial soldiers was utterly insignificant.
An oppressive killing intent bore down.
The eyes of the massive predator fixed clearly on Kallias alone. It was a pressure that could blanch even those not targeted, yet Kallias faced it head-on.
‘This is a dragon.’
It was incomparable to a hatchling.
A fully mature adult dragon had appeared before him, intent on killing him.
Yet he did not panic.
He had known this would happen from the start.
The dragons of this world had drastically decreased in number since the Dragon-Horse Great War.
Naturally, they were quite sensitive to any reduction, be it hatchlings or dragons themselves.
Moreover, he possessed the Mad Dragon Sword, earning their enmity, and had revived a dead hatchling as his familiar.
Their rage was justified.
However.
“Dragons and humans have always been enemies.”
The dragonkin were no different from natural disasters.
Humans were inevitably positioned as prey to these predators.
He had anticipated their approach.
The Mad Dragon embedded in his heart had laughed, yearning for his demise.
But he paid it no mind.
It was merely a mountain to climb, a river to cross.
Crunch.
The ground shattered beneath his foot.
With cracks spiderwebbing outward, his form closed in on the dragon in an instant.
Ding.
He dismissed the rising quest window and gripped the scabbard with his left hand.
His right hand seized the hilt as he reined in his explosively surging energy.
‘First.’
He would test the extent of his power.
Against a dragon.
Pure strength for now.
Only divine power.
“Hundred Cuts Blossom.”
Keeeng!
The friction of Roas being drawn from its sheath. Sparks flew.
A slender blade aura.
He stepped into the realm of the transcendent, where objects warped and distorted. Amid it all, he cleaved one thing.
He severed a world.
Shwaaaaaack!!
The world split vertically.
A thread-thin sword drew a single line.
That line soon.
Rumble rumble rumble boom!!
Sliced the Colosseum in half.
-Kraaaaaargh!
It wounded the dragon's chest.
Spurt!
Crimson blood sprayed.
The blood flowing from the absolute being's massive body soaked the Colosseum floor.
The dragon's furious roar and writhing in pain brought ecstasy.
Thud.
Landing on the ground, he furrowed his brow.
‘Shallow.’
He felt the cut.
But it had not reached the bone.
He had merely sliced the outer layer.
Just a bit of the sturdy dragon scales and flesh.
Of course, it was a brilliant achievement, one humans could scarcely dream of, but compared to Stella back then, it fell far short.
“No matter.”
There was still much to test.
He sheathed his sword at once and focused his energy anew.
Unlike before, when only silver light had bloomed.
This time, a tyrannical aura of madness overflowed from his body.
It was the dragon's power flowing through him, engraved into his vertebrae.
An energy exclusive to dragons.
The dark crimson aura boiled his blood and reinforced his entire body.
The first proper use since Carpe's invasion—excluding that time.
Yet now, it came far more naturally than before.
Dragon power.
-Kraaaaaaaa!!
As he unleashed it, the dragon—wounded in the chest and roaring—reached the peak of its fury.
Whoosh!
Kicking off the ground, he reached the dragon's flank in a flash.
But this time, it was not easy.
As if anticipating him, it whipped around, its thick tail lashing like a whip to strike his position.
Boom!!
A single tail swipe cratered the massive ground, crushing or tearing apart nearby soldiers.
Then, flapping its wings to lift slightly, it reared its maw skyward.
Flames flickered from its jaws.
And soon.
-Kwaaaaaargh!!
The breath erupted.
At the same moment.
The technique engraved in his body by the Mad Dragon.
“Dragon's Roar.”
An energy identical to the Mad Dragon's shot from the tip of his sword.
* * *
The sudden appearance of the dragon left Esther and everyone around her stunned.
Would the millennium of peace since the Dragon-Horse Great War be shattered?
Shock and primal terror froze their bodies.
Knight or master, the dragon's advent made no distinction.
The most shocked was none other than Ovarna, lord of the 61st layer.
“Are you trying to shatter a thousand years of peace!!”
She screamed.
What had the tower's devotees—abandoning the secular world across generations—endured all that hardship for?
It was solely to prevent dragons and demon horses from appearing, for the world's peace alone.
Yet in the heart of the Empire.
A dragon, no less! This was an unforgivable catastrophe.
‘That’s a dragon…….’
Even the man called the Empire's 11th Spear could not take a step before the dragon's majesty, known only from tales.
The dragon was vaster than imagined, its enveloped aura and the overwhelming dragon power proclaiming it the apex predator of all existence.
Even one who transcended human limits struggled to resist its presence easily.
As all stood frozen.
One man leaped in.
The pilgrim clad in pure white robes.
His hood fell back, revealing lustrous black hair.
In his hand, a sword.
His ash-gray eyes fixed solely on the dragon.
Soon, his sword flashed.
Slash!
“Gasp!”
A single strike.
One sword cut opened the dragon's chest.
Spurt!
‘Kallias!!’
Esther's face lit half with astonishment, half with joy, while Ovarna's was half astonishment, half enmity.
Be that as it may.
Landing amid the shower of dragon blood, he immediately wreathed himself in ominous crimson energy and continued clashing with the dragon.
The aura cloaking its claws from birth.
Dodging or blocking it, Kallias's swordsmanship—slowly carving scales and outer flesh—was a step beyond his previous level.
Esther, who had once matched him evenly, recognized it clearly and rejoiced that he had ascended to the same master rank as her.
As she moved to join him.
Flames flickered from the dragon's maw, turning Ovarna pale.
“Dodge!”
Perhaps from fighting alongside the imperial forces even briefly.
Ovarna warned Esther to flee, and instantly.
Kwaaaaaaaa-!
The dragon's breath turned the Colosseum—and a corner of Boltan—into a sea of fire.
Ordinary buildings melted into ash under the blaze, the plaza around Boltan charred black.
Flames blanketed the sky.
The air temperature soared in an instant, mouths parched, and those nearby suffered burns or asphyxiation, flailing desperately.
The dragon's tremendous might.
A single breath reduced a great city to ruins.
From one dragon alone.
One could scarcely imagine the battles of that era.
The nameless dragon seemed satisfied with the devastation it wrought, but its expression soon wiped clean.
One ant-like figure stood unscathed before it, half-broken sword in hand.
The man who had faced the breath head-on stood firm against the dragon.
The dragon peered down at him.
The one who had incurred the dragons' wrath.
The one who had earned their grudge.
The elders had ordered it to slay him and restore draconic dignity.
Yet it proved harder than expected.
This human, whom it could shred with a gesture.
Not only wounded it but confronted its breath directly.
Flick, toss.
He discarded the broken sword.
Drew a new one and armed himself.
The dragon's pupils contracted.
It was a sword imbued with chilling energy.
Recognizing it at a glance, it spread its wings wide.
“Where do you think you’re going.”
Was the dragon fleeing?
No.
The dragon's stage was the open sky.
Spewing fire from on high—that was its true power.
It merely sought to enact that.
Not fleeing.
But Kallias had no intention of allowing it.
Craaaackle!
Flinch.
The dragon, about to take flight, shuddered.
The air, heated by its own breath, cooled sharply.
Soon, frost swirled, thin ice forming everywhere in an instant.
In the half-ruined Colosseum corner stood only the dragon and Kallias.
Silence flowed between them.
Only breathing sounds.
Rumble.
Then, part of the Colosseum's outer wall crumbled with a small noise.
At that moment.
Inhale!
The dragon expanded its chest, drawing in air to prepare its flames, as Kallias swung his sword.
Crack!
-!
The dragon's eyes snapped wide.
Suddenly, its maw froze shut.
The fireball it tried to spew boiled within, eyes spinning, acrid smoke jetting from nostrils piercing the ice.
Just then, Kallias's sword targeted its neck once more.
Slash!
Crackle, shatter!!
-Kraaaaaargh!!
The ice sealing its jaws broke, the dragon's scream echoing across the heavens.
Thud.
With one dragon forelimb severed, it screamed, but its tail whipped out like a lash toward Kallias.
Boom!
Barely dodging, Kallias mounted its head, gripping a horn as his sword pierced the dragon's skull.
Clang!
‘Tch.’
Tougher than expected.
Even Lament cloaked in sword aura could not penetrate the skull.
Should he draw the Iron Lord? As the thought crossed his mind, whoooosh!!
Its wings unfurled fully.
“Damn!”
The dragon dove instantly, gliding erratically through the sky, shaking its head wildly to dislodge Kallias.
Roooaaarrr!
It spewed breath nonstop from its maw, flying at astonishing speed despite its bulk. Kallias ground his teeth at its movements.
Shaking like a straw in the wind, barely holding on, Kallias's body turned ashen. Residual energy bloomed as the Iron Lord gripped his hand.
-Kwaaaaaah!
Sensing something ominous, the dragon twisted its neck fully to prepare another breath.
The forms of dragon and Kallias pierced the clouds, soaring upward.
“If the head’s too hard…!”
Pierce the neck.
Thrusting the ashen Iron Lord into the dragon's neck, simultaneously.
‘Ash Convergence.’
The ash swirling everywhere gathered onto Kallias's sword.
Through repeated spars with Orville, Kallias had realized.
At its root, Flower Breaking Path was for facing multiple foes.
To maximize Ash Convergence's power, he needed to focus dispersed energy into one.
After much trial and error, Kallias perfected a new form of Ash Convergence.
A simple slash.
Yet layered auras and dozens, hundreds of sword qi condensed into one strike.
“Ash Annihilation.”
Shwaaaaaack!
Ash dyed the sky.
And soon visible.
The dragon plummeting like a meteor, Kallias upon it.
Kwaaaaaaaaang-!
A colossal roar and tremor shook the earth.
A massive crater formed in the Colosseum's center, swallowing dragon and Kallias from view.
Amid shaking brain and blurring vision.
Before Kallias's eyes unfolded Lactus's flower garden, hidden underground.