93
Chapter 93
Aru cracked her neck. The audible snap echoed with a threatening tone.
The confidence of Silchizrei and Silgemund began to crack. They were feeling a sense of 'threat' that, according to their plan, they should never have felt.
It was absurd. Dragons, possessing the cheat-like power of infinite regeneration, feeling fear. Such a thing was impossible unless the opponent were a King of Species.
Yes, unless they were a 'King of Species'.
"Could it be... that guy is a King...?"
"What...! Do you think Kings are that common! No Wolf King has appeared for nearly two thousand years! Why would the only King of a species be in a remote place like this!"
"But if not, there's no explanation for why our regeneration is being blocked...!"
"...Dammit, I didn't consider the possibility that one might be in the outskirts."
The humans of the Continent determine their Kings based on their own subjective views, but that is only true for humans. Every species has its own King, and that King possesses the Authority to lead their entire kind.
Furthermore, because a King of Species has the duty to sustain their kind even in the direst of situations.
They each possess an ability that ignores the laws of nature.
For example, the King of Turtles has a 'shell' that cannot be pierced by anything.
The King of Horses has 'feet' that can fold space while galloping.
And the Wolf King has....
"Woof, fly me up there."
"Will you be alright?"
"I'll die if I get hit by a breath. I can feel it."
"That's not what I meant. Having experienced your skill, they won't just take your attacks anymore. I'm asking if you can actually win if you engage them."
"Grrr! Stop asking stupid questions!"
She possesses a lethal force capable of hunting anything. In the previous life Oscar remembered, this was what made Wolf King Aru revered as the God of Assassins.
"I haven't even gone all out yet! I'm going to do it properly now!"
"Are you serious? This is a fight we cannot afford to lose, even if the heavens split in two."
"Woof woof woof! I'll win!"
Aru's confirmation was filled with confidence. Uriel gave a small smile and let Aru ride on her back. The shadows of the dragons, flying high enough to touch the clouds, loomed large.
Piiiiiing-.
Dragon Mana began to gather in Silgemund's two mouths and Silchizrei's mouth. Though Silchizrei was quite wounded, it wasn't to the extent that manipulating mana was impossible.
"Here I come!"
"Woof woof woof!"
Uriel's wings flapped powerfully. They soared vertically from the ground. Watching the Wolf King and Uriel charging toward them at sonic speeds, the dragons aimed their breath.
Boom-!
First, Silchizrei's breath exploded. Blazing electricity rained down like lightning. However, perhaps because of the injury to its right eye, the breath narrowly missed Aru and Uriel, striking the ground directly.
"...!"
Uriel looked down to gauge the power of the impact. Immediately, ripples formed at the edge of her vision. The ground, which had been flat and lush with grass, had turned into a wasteland filled with flames.
"As expected of a dragon...! Wolf King! It'll be hard to take consecutive hits from this height like before; can you really win just by getting close?"
"Woof woof! I saved something! I can kill them in one shot!"
"In that case!"
The remaining distance between the dragons and Aru was roughly 70 meters. A distance that could be closed in a couple of wingbeats. However, the dragons had no intention of waiting patiently.
Wuuuung-.
"Woof! We have to dodge!"
"We can't change direction now because of the acceleration! Wolf King! We're going straight!"
"That's reckless! Woof woof!"
Silgemund's red head aimed at the incoming duo and unleashed the breath it had been building up. Perhaps because it had more preparation, a breath twice as fierce as Silchizrei's engulfed Aru and Uriel. Unable to dodge, the two took the hit head-on.
"Grrr!"
Silgemund let out a satisfied sigh. This was the flame of a dragon. No matter how great a King of Species was, there was no way they could remain unscathed after being struck directly by the flames of a dragon, evaluated as the finest among all species.
The Wolf King was specialized in offense, not possessing the physical durability of a Turtle King.
"Ggg... aagh!"
However, Silgemund did not know.
That in this very place, there existed a being who symbolized fire itself.
The flames, which were expected to incinerate the arrogant opposers, began to swirl and gather in a circle. The breath that started as a sphere ended as a sphere. At the end of that point stood an angel with fluttering white wings.
Kwakwakwakwa-!
"How dare you... throw fire at me!"
Uriel. Once an Archangel, a being who had dominated the Heavenly Realm, the world of angels.
Her Authorities were Judgment and Destruction of Evil; Uriel would slash sinners with the sword in her right hand and then sear the evil away with the flames in her left, burning them without a trace. All the fire in the world belongs to Uriel's dominion. It was an Authority bestowed by the Lord himself.
The breath surrounded Uriel and Aru, but it could not cause them direct harm. Uriel's Holy Power restricted Silgemund's interference with the fire.
"Aaaaaah!"
With a powerful shout, Uriel seized control of the flames. The pressure was so immense that it felt as if her entire body were being crushed, but Uriel gritted her teeth and endured. She then concentrated and condensed the fire, shaping it into a long sword. With a white hilt and a crimson blade, it was a sword unique in the world.
"Wolf King! Take this!"
"Woof! But why?"
"It would be impossible to take down such a massive monster in one hit with just a dagger!"
"You weren't just some ordinary angel like that beastman! Uriel! You're Archangel Uriel!"
"But why does Archangel Uriel look like a child? You only have two wings! It's quite pathetic to see you struggling against a mere breath!"
The distance had closed to about twenty meters. In that time, Aru gripped the flaming sword Uriel had given her instead of her dagger, while Silgemund prepared to fire the breath it had saved as a trump card.
"Tsk...! I can't stop that...!"
A low groan escaped Uriel's lips. A cold, chilling aura filled Silgemund's second mouth.
Silgemund was a dragon born with both fire and ice attributes. While the fire breath had been neutralized by Uriel, Silgemund still had a breath made of extreme frost.
With 10 meters remaining, Silgemund, exercising extreme caution, fired the breath from a position where it could not possibly miss.
Crack-!
An ice storm that froze everything it touched surged forward with monstrous momentum. With nowhere to step, Uriel was swallowed whole by the breath.
"Woof!"
"H-how?"
However, only Uriel had been swallowed. Using her incredible leg strength, Aru leapt upward like a spring, stepping off Uriel's head. Six pupils dilated in shock as they looked at the wolf now at their eye level.
Tap tap tap-!
Aru sprinted toward Silgemund, using the ice path created by the breath as a foothold. The dragons, never expecting her to push through three breaths, tried to create distance too late; Aru had already crossed the ice and put Silgemund and Silchizrei within range.
Swoosh-!
Aru's arm, transformed like that of a wolf, swung wide. The sword, with its longer reach, followed suit. A yellow flash flickered.
The blade of fire burned intensely. Even dragon scales, said to be harder than iron, were nothing more than kindling before the flames.
Whoosh-!
Clang-!
The two lizards died. Three necks were severed.
*****
After falling from the sky, Aru first looked for Uriel. She naturally worried whether Uriel, who had taken the full force of the ice after being used as a staircase, would be alright.
Sizzle-.
"Haa... haa... that was far too close."
"Woof! Woof woof woof! The angel is alive!"
"Yes, I'm alive. I'm destined to be an Archangel; I can't afford to die in a place like this."
Uriel appeared from behind Aru, melting the block of ice. It seemed the ice that had encased her absorbed the impact of the crash, as there wasn't a single scratch on her body.
"You're alive! You're alive!"
"Be quiet, Wolf King. I know better than anyone that I'm alive, so why do you keep shouting!"
"Woof! No, I mean he's alive!"
"Him? You mean the dragons?"
"Woof woof! One of them is still alive!"
At Aru's shout, Uriel turned her head. In her field of vision, three severed heads lay upon the earth. Silgemund's two heads seemed to have already breathed their last, their eyes closed, but Silchizrei's head alone had its left eye wide open. Its right eye was also open, but since Aru had cut it in a cross shape, it hardly looked open.
"Silchizrei, close your eyes. The match is over."
"Kgh... Uriel... why are you here...?"
"Do not feel wronged. You were the ones who tried to attack first."
"Heh! Hahahaha! To think that we dragons, the supreme beings of all creation, would meet such a miserable end!"
"I didn't know either. That I, once an Archangel, would end up like this."
'Thinking about it, this is all that fellow Oscar's doing. A single demon changed the Demon Beast Forest.'
Uriel limped over and stood before Silchizrei. Her gaze looked down, brushing over Silchizrei's blackened, burned wound.
'By the way, Wolf King... what was that last attack? I've never seen her unleash a strike of that level while we were together. Is that Oscar's work too? Honestly, he's an enigmatic fellow.'
It was just as Uriel's eyes were beginning to sink into deep thought.
"However! Do not think it ends here!"
"Hm?"
"Woof? If you're dead, shut up!"
"Níðhöggr, the four-headed dragon, is the strongest dragon, one that Silgemund and I could not defeat even if we joined forces! He was even called a candidate for the next Dragon Lord by the clan before the Dragon King took him in as a confidant! Although we die here, Níðhöggr will avenge us!"
Thud-.
After leaving a grudge-filled final word using the last of his mana and strength, Silchizrei finally closed his eyes.
Uriel and Aru looked at each other for a moment, then, as if by unspoken agreement, simultaneously began heading south. Uriel flew, and Aru ran on all fours.
The knight, Beatrice, who had declared she would face Níðhöggr alone in the south.
She was in danger.
*****
Boom-!
Four beams of light poured down relentlessly. Destroying everything in their path, they all chased after the movements of a single woman.
Beatrice drove her sword into the ground. Her brown hair, always kept in a ponytail, had come loose and become a disheveled mess, and blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. The taste in her mouth was hot and metallic.
"You really aren't just a lizard...!"
"Kwahahaha! Arrogant human! You've grown far too bold!"
Even as she tried to stand again, her knees buckled, and she swayed. Rough breaths escaped her lips.
A critical situation where she looked as if she might collapse at any moment. Instead of attacking, she was barelyManaging to dodge the breaths.
Sir Beatrice Constantino gripped her sword once more. The metallic clatter of the blade echoed softly.