Children of the 2.54 Million Dragons (1)
“Dalen! To come to my aid at such a crucial moment, you truly are a warrior who understands honor!”
The voice echoed across the square, and Dalen raised an eyebrow. The response hadn’t come from Edgar, the knight commander, but from an unexpected source.
Turning his head, he saw an ancient colossus locked in a fierce struggle with a true dragon, shouting as it did so.
”…A pharaoh’s head?”
“Indeed, you are a man worthy of our desert dynasty’s secrets. This is no mere incantation that the unworthy can wield—urk!”
Boom!
A fireball from the sky struck the colossus’s face, shattering its head. Dalen chuckled dryly at the sight of the toppling statue.
“If it were just you, I wouldn’t have bothered coming back. Why revive a corpse that’s been dead for three thousand years?”
“Hah! A true pharaoh knows how to wield both a warm heart and a sharp tongue! I acknowledge you. Even if not by blood, you are the heir to our dynasty!”
The voice of the pharaoh came from behind. Turning, Dalen saw a bronze scarab crawling out from the debris, creaking as it moved.
He glanced at the scarab with the pharaoh’s mask on its back, then shifted his gaze southward across the square.
The area was engulfed in white flames and thick smoke, with seven figures rapidly approaching from beyond.
Naturally, Dalen wasn’t the only one who had come to rescue Edgar. He had simply arrived a step ahead, having flown halfway there in the urgency of the situation.
[Elle—]
The first sound to reach the square was the resonant chant of two mages.
[Memento.]
[Tullia.]
[Meralia.]
[Casibolg.]
[Aculor.]
The majestic voices of a young and an old mage intertwined, each incantation filling the square’s burning floor with a golden light.
The scale and density of the accumulating magic were nearly identical to the spell resonance that had heralded the northern battle.
The amassed magic, enough to halt the dark clouds of the evil god Sume, layered upon itself, forming the foundation for a massive spell across the square.
[Mages!]
[―――!]
[――! ―――!]
The dragon army didn’t just stand by. With each dragon word, dozens of spells formed, filling the twilight sky with the glow of incantations.
Under the pharaoh’s command, the bronze scarabs and colossi tried to intercept the spells, but the guardian forces of the ruins were severely depleted from prolonged fighting.
Boom! Boom!
The scarab swarm soared high, only to be crushed as a multicolored spell rain poured down like a deluge.
[―Elegus.]
The voice of the priest Valentino uttered the final word of the incantation.
Whoosh!
The dust and smoke that had risen thickly cleared away.
“Domain Unleashed: The Hand of the Earth Rewinding the Clock”
“Wheel-Breaking Art”
“Domain Unleashed: The Hand of the Earth Rewinding the Clock”
“Time-Space Separation: Reversal”
Golden concentric rings that covered the square rose at various angles, forming a golden barrier.
“Domain Resonance”
“Seventy-Seven Twin Wheel Guard”
Whirring…
The golden barrier spread out from the center of the square, and as soon as the spell rain touched the shimmering golden waves, it began to rewind as if a video were being played backward.
Boom! Boom!
The thousands of spells, each rewinding at different speeds, collided and exploded in a spectacular display.
Amidst the magical fireworks blooming in the sky, countless stone spears were launched.
Shatter!
[Roar!]
[My wings! My wings!]
[Fall back! Reform the lines!]
Wing-torn lesser dragons plummeted to the ground.
They crashed into the cityscape surrounding the square like meteors, only to be torn apart by waiting stone golems or impaled by stone spears mid-fall.
[A sixth-tier sorcerer has deployed a domain that combines offense and defense. It’s time and earth-based!]
[Earth dragons, defend the front! The rest, break the barrier with your breath!]
Unfortunately, none of the true dragons suffered fatal injuries, but they too ceased their spellcasting and retreated to regroup.
A domain that could momentarily force back an army of dozens of true dragons and ten times as many lesser dragons.
To break a domain that reversed most spells, hundreds of dragons began gathering magic in their maws.
And before dozens of breaths could strike the golden barrier—
“Domain Unleashed: The White Sword Piercing the Heart of Evil”
A beam of light shot across the sky.
──────Thud.
[Gah…!]
The dragon gathering its breath staggered. It coughed up blood, barely maintaining its balance.
A searing pain surged through it, as if a hole had been punched through, draining its magic and vitality.
[…When!]
Looking down, it saw a small hole in its chest. A small hole, indeed.
Yet the white flame flickering within was hot enough to incinerate even a true dragon’s heart.
Fwoosh!
[Roar—!]
The white flame began to spread from the hole in its chest to its mouth, nose, and eyes.
Leaving the burning dragon behind, the paladin wielding the flame-covered holy sword soared toward the next target.
[Paladin…!]
The dragon’s wingbeats conjured defensive spells. It didn’t matter.
A corrupted dragon was no different from a demon.
And the power of Lucia’s domain was an incomprehensible authority that pierced any defense against evil.
─────Slash!
The holy sword left the paladin’s hand, slicing through the dragon’s wing.
The dragon twisted its body, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow, but couldn’t escape the flames consuming its wings.
Sensing danger, the dragon layered more spells, but it was futile.
Even a fifth-tier dragon, a mystical being transcending humanity from birth, couldn’t suppress this stark elemental advantage with mere equal power.
────Slash!
[Roar!]
The holy sword ignored the dozens of layered defensive spells and plunged in.
After embedding white flames in the dragon’s heart, the sword swiftly returned to its master’s hand.
[Demon slayer! It’s the war god’s sword!]
[Take out the paladin first!]
The dragons, about to unleash their breath on the barrier, shifted their focus.
They redirected their gathered magic into spells, concentrating thousands of attacks on Lucia, who flew through the sky.
It was a sound decision. Even Lucia’s domain, with its extreme advantage against evil, wasn’t omnipotent.
Its nature allowed it to target only one enemy at a time, making it difficult to handle multiple foes simultaneously.
However, Lucia wasn’t alone in facing the dragon army in the sky.
[―――Caw!]
Boom!
A dragon gathering its breath for the paladin exploded and plummeted.
A black-and-white patterned bird had collided head-on with the dragon’s breath.
Even after the bird shattered against the spell, its sharp black-and-white feathers retained their edge, mingling with the breath’s magic.
The storm of magic, mixed with the sharp white feathers, tore through the dragon’s maw and throat, nearly severing its neck.
“Domain Unleashed: The Silent Wings of the Slums”
Flap!
A flock of feathers began to rise from the distant streets.
From the southern cityscape, thousands of birds made entirely of feathers, like the one that had just downed a dragon, took flight.
Unlike the usual display of the witch’s power, this was a flock of two-colored birds, with white feathers interspersed among the black.
The domain’s power, represented by the effect of white and black feathers mingling beyond the monitor, bared its fangs at the dragon army.
“Black Wave, White Blade”
Crackle!
The flock, defying the norms of distance and speed, closed the kilometers-wide gap in an instant, mingling with the dragon army.
They scratched scales, tore through leathery wings, and hurled themselves at nearly completed spells, exploding together.
Though seemingly chaotic, it was anything but.
The flock performed a precise aerial ballet, protecting Lucia as she weaved through the dragon army, intercepting spells aimed at her with perfect timing.
While not individually lethal to the true dragons, they couldn’t be ignored.
The black feathers could barely scratch a lesser dragon’s scales, but the white feathers could pierce and burrow into a true dragon’s hide.
[Argh! These pesky flies…!]
[Change formation! Spread out!]
[Track the source of the spells! Just bombard the entire city!]
In an instant, the dragon army’s formation descended into chaos.
Amidst the turmoil, the ground shattered, revealing a massive, dark figure emerging from below.
Rumble, rumble…
“Domain Unleashed: The Royal Colossus of Resentment.”
Stone slabs flew in all directions, and a cloud of dust rose as if from a bombardment.
Through the thick dust, a colossal steel golem emerged, towering at least fifty meters high.
Its legs alone rivaled the height and width of a skyscraper, and its presence dwarfed the cityscape, standing like a giant tower in the center of the plaza.
“O mighty colossus, answer the evil as it deserves.”
Creak! Clang! Clang!
At the low incantation of the one-eyed dwarf, the golem raised its rune-engraved arms to the sky.
Its ten fingers opened, revealing cannon muzzles akin to mortars, and hundreds of gun barrels adorning its body pointed skyward in unison.
“To the imperial family that slaughtered the dwarves and the five evil gods lurking behind them, return the fruits of a thousand years of resentment.”
Dalen watched the dwarf with the fiery single eye, standing with his hand on his hip, gazing up at the sky.
The air around Bjorn was thick with the acrid smell of gunpowder, and a dark circle spread beneath his feet.
‘The last descendant of the wandering Caladracum dynasty, the one-eyed master craftsman who stole the technology of the Empire and the Tsar’s nation. Bjorn Caladracum.’
The words Charina had once spoken to him before the Frost Throne echoed in his mind.
According to Felber, the Caladracum dynasty once ruled a third of the southern continent before falling with the rise of the human Empire.
Further investigation revealed that the Caladracum family had wandered for a thousand years, biding their time for revenge.
“Our resentment burns hotter than boiling oil and will explode more powerfully than any gunpowder.”
Over time, the quest for vengeance of the old dynasty had faded into a half-forgotten task by Bjorn’s generation.
However, after the northern battle and the death of his granddaughter Charina, the last king’s heart reignited with the flames of resentment.
The dynasty’s grudge against Enaxagus, lurking behind the Empire, and the five evil gods he led.
The culmination of a thousand years of resentment erupted from the hundreds of cannons.
“Fire all batteries.”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions painted the sky.
The shells of resentment, more explosive than any gunpowder, ignited the air above the city.
As countless explosions heated the atmosphere, stone spears and feathers relentlessly tore through the dragons.
[Why do you attack us, blue-scaled true dragon?]
[It’s Cheongrin! The child of Cheongrin!]
[Do you not realize you are tearing at your mother’s heart… Aaargh!]
Amidst the chaos, the blue-scaled dragon Akasha tore into the hearts and throats of the dragons with a blaze of white flame.
Edgar, sitting in the middle of the plaza receiving treatment from Farren, looked up at the scene in a daze before turning to Dalen.
Dalen turned to meet Edgar’s gaze. As the knight commander opened his mouth, Dalen spoke first.
“Why…”
“If you’re going to ask why we came to save you or why we returned, just know one thing.”
”…?”
“If you waste your recovery time with pointless questions, I’ll make sure to give you a good smack for each one.”
Dalen grinned, his sharp fangs glinting between his lips.
“If you’ve got energy to spare, feel free to chatter a hundred words. When else will you get the chance to spar with the head of the Holy Knights?”
”…”
Edgar quietly extended his injured right arm to Farren.
The former mercenary-turned-holy knight adeptly wrapped the bandage with one hand.