The Path to Ascension (5)

Even for a demigod body, Ruby's power was enough to be called top-tier among second-grade monsters. Taking Ruby's full-force tail strike head-on would leave anyone dazed.

Which meant this was a chance I couldn't afford to waste.

Tzztztztztz────

I channeled Daoist power into my staff. Lightning crackled and raged, spitting sparks in every direction.

Two bolts of lightning embroidered the sky white. The thunderbolts struck the staggering Ogmarr dead-on. His scales smoked and glowed crimson.

— A trivial trick!

Ogmarr endured the Thunderbolt Heavenly Bow through sheer toughness. The ground around him cracked apart, and a wave of crimson fire surged upward.

"Dodge!"

Zaktar shouted urgently.

The wave of fire grew to dozens of meters high. This was a spell cast by a divine beast at the threshold of ascension. Getting hit by something like that would leave nothing behind but dust.

"Zaktar, don't panic!"

I transformed into an eagle and snatched Zaktar by the nape. The wave of fire grazed just beneath his feet.

"Kraaaagh!"

"Korvash!"

Hundreds of lizardmen evaporated without a trace. The power was more than ten times my full-strength Blazing Flame Ascension. I felt strength draining from my wings. I'd felt the same standing before Ulkaard the Black Dragon. The presence of an avatar-god, making someone like me feel small.

"Srudal, throw me onto its back!"

Zaktar shouted loudly. I couldn't answer with a beak, so I just flapped my wings.

Ogmarr's massive size made him sluggish. And with his long body and thick neck, he couldn't see well above his own head. That was the weak point I had to exploit.

I lowered my altitude and dropped Zaktar onto Ogmarr's back. Zaktar gripped his mace with both hands and, adding gravity to the blow, smashed it down on the back of the dragon's skull.

CRUNCH.

The ancient dragon's scales caved inward. Zaktar gripped the scales firmly and swung his mace again and again. Each blow split the thick scales without fail. A mace forged from Doomsteel delivered a deeply satisfying impact.

Then Ruby joined the fray. Ruby bravely charged in and clamped down on Ogmarr's foreleg.

"Kieeek!"

A proper scream finally tore from Ogmarr's throat. Ruby twisted its body with all its strength, jaws locked on the dragon's leg. The two dragons' bodies tangled in ferocious combat. The plain couldn't contain the rampaging dragons. The ground overturned, and the castle walls wobbled like taffy.

With Zaktar hammering away on top of that, Ogmarr couldn't find the opening to cast a spell even if he wanted to.

— Such an ill-mannered whelp!

It happened mid-exchange. Ogmarr's tail slammed squarely into Ruby's flank. Ruby let out a single cry and went flying. Until that moment, Ruby had torn into Ogmarr dozens of times, but a single blow was enough to neutralize the young dragon.

When Ruby fell, the battlefield shifted dramatically.

"Lord Ogmarr has won!"

"The false god has fallen! Execute the blasphemers!"

The enemies who had only been watching from the walls switched to the offensive. War machines began furiously hurling stones and ballista bolts.

Their war machines packed more power than 'Korvash's Harpoon.' Theirs were also made of Doomsteel, and larger in size, so each impact triggered an explosion like a bomb going off.

Among them were spellcasters called 'shamans,' wielding staffs. They used techniques similar to my Flame Shadow Art, turning the ground below the walls into a sea of fire.

"Lord Ruby is in danger!"

"Protect Lord Ruby!"

Zaktar's army risked death for their new god. They raised their shields high and charged into the battlefield where arrows and spells fell like rain.

It was a reckless charge. Cracking a boulder with eggs would have looked more promising.

— Impious wretches.

Flames flickered inside Ogmarr's maw. Magma breath. At this rate, Zaktar's army faced annihilation.

"Hey!"

I slammed a Thunderbolt Heavenly Bow straight into his snout without warning.

"Feeling like you've forgotten something?"

— Wh······.

Ogmarr finally turned to look at me.

— Insignificant insect. How dare you toy with the progenitor of all sorcery.

— All sorcery flows from us dragons. Just as a river cannot swallow the sea, it is only natural that you cannot stop me.

The telepathic voice reverberated through my skull. His sheer presence made it hard to breathe. Under that crushing pressure, like being pinned beneath a boulder, a memory from my past life surfaced.

I formed a hand seal with one hand. With the other, I drew out a talisman. My staff floated in the air. The talisman blazed to life, spreading an illusion across a vast area.

— How utterly crude!

Ogmarr sneered contemptuously. That alone was enough to shake off the illusion's influence. Clouding the mind of a first-grade monster with illusions had been impossible from the start.

But his subordinates were another matter.

Keeeeeee······.

The ballistae mounted on the walls swiveled and took aim at Ogmarr. Until the ballista bolts pierced his body, Ogmarr didn't even realize what was happening.

"Fire!"

"Show the false god what we're made of!"

The war machines that had been on Ogmarr's side moments ago opened fire on him all at once. The shamans turned as well. They squeezed out every drop of mana and beat Ogmarr like they were crushing a bug.

What I'd given them was a simple optical illusion. Making them see Ogmarr as Ruby, and Ruby as Ogmarr.

There was no need for grand sorcery. The more elaborate the illusion, the more the details fell apart.

— Have these creatures gone mad?

Ogmarr was bewildered. He had already taken considerable damage. Countless harpoons bristled from his body, and the flesh Ruby had torn was hanging in shreds.

— You dare betray your own god!

He roared and smashed the wall. A section of the rampart collapsed, sending countless lizardmen plummeting below.

Meanwhile, Zaktar's army arrived. They were elite troops handpicked from among the lizardmen. Using the terrain to evade Ogmarr's tail, they calmly drove 'Korvash's Harpoon' home at point-blank range.

I could no longer use offensive techniques. All my capacity was devoted to maintaining the illusion. But with several thousand kingdom soldiers attacking furiously on my behalf, it was a far better return on investment.

— Stop this at once! I am your god!

Like watching a hornet. A hornet surrounded by hundreds of bees, dying.

Ruby had also come to. Zaktar, emboldened, commanded his forces with renewed vigor.

Ogmarr was growing desperate now. The creature abandoned any thought of counterattack and tried to flee into the darkness of the underworld.

That was when I withdrew the illusion. And cast a wide-ranging barrier over his body.

Even a full-power barrier wasn't enough to truly hold him. But it didn't need to hold him. Just a momentary stumble for someone whose life hung in the balance. That was more than enough.

The lizardmen pursued Ogmarr relentlessly, striking only vital points with pinpoint accuracy from range. There was a reason Srudal called lizardmen the finest hunters.

— You wretched······.

When their arrows ran dry, the lizardmen resorted to physical attacks. They didn't care if they were trampled under the dragon's feet.

— ...vermin.

Ogmarr's life force wore away slowly, like rock eroded by waves. He staggered several kilometers from the walls before collapsing. There, he lifted his head one final time, and never rose again.

The fallen dragon's hide was so densely studded with arrows and ballista bolts that there wasn't room for another needle. Blood streaming from his wounds became streams that soaked the cracked earth.

"Did we do it?"

Zaktar couldn't quite believe Ogmarr was dead. He stared blankly at the corpse, then looked up at the ceiling of the underworld and murmured softly.

"Korvash, I give you thanks."

"Ogmarr has fallen!"

"We have won!"

"Long ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠live Lord Ruby!"

"Kraaaaaah!"

The lizardmen embraced each other and cheered. Some rushed to Ruby and prostrated themselves. Ruby, perhaps catching the divine fever, roared with gusto.

It had started as half a joke, but at this rate, a genuine religion worshipping Ruby as a god might well be born.

Ruby had fought that bravely. Taking on a dragon larger than yourself was no small feat.

"I hate to bring this up now."

I said, approaching Zaktar.

"But it's time to settle accounts."

He turned to me and asked.

"Wasn't it the dragon's heart you wanted?"

"It was."

Zaktar had just avenged his son with his own hands. I would have liked to give him time to process his emotions, but I needed to extract the inner core before the corpse began to decay.

"Do as you please. None of this would have been possible without you."

Zaktar stepped aside without protest. I found myself alone with Ogmarr's corpse. It was so massive that I couldn't take in the head and tail in a single glance.

Suddenly my chest swelled with emotion. This was the moment I had longed for since my past life. Facing a being of myth, and after untold hardship, finally obtaining the means to overcome fate.

A dull ache pulsed from my heart. The aftermath of burning through Daoist power so recklessly had my severed meridians throwing a tantrum. Even they seemed to sense that our time together was drawing to a close.

I drew the demon count Grimscale's sword from Sanpedella's bag. Grimscale, robbed of his blade by me, had died without even landing a proper counterattack.

A sword said to have been bestowed by the Demon King himself.

There could be no better tool for splitting a dragon's scales.