Chapter 380: King-Slaying Silver Blade

Several heretical dragons engaged in their own battles, settling scores that belonged to them alone. These unavoidable conflicts were merely preparations for a singular, subsequent event: opening the gateway to the Dragon God for the silver dragon, Aerilian.

"Boom!"

The skeletal dragon surged with violent force, its horns goring a dragon that stood in its path, pushing and crushing it until they smashed through a mountain, sending jagged shards of rock raining down.

Kog'Maw the Dead Dragon—the only one of its kind, a species with no known origin—was blocked by several ancient dragons. Their immense power was beyond question, yet against this colossal carcass, they appeared strained and clumsy.

Size is strength; this truth holds firm in this world. A massive frame requires a body capable of bearing its own weight, and if one can move with natural agility, that size grants a terrifying multiplier to speed.

This skeletal construct, forged by Kog'Maw and Bicu, possessed exactly that. It was a dragon magnified a hundredfold, yet its movements—the raising of a limb, the snap of a jaw—took no longer than those of an ordinary dragon. With the added weight of its scale, its strikes became impossible to dodge or parry.

As it raised its forelimbs, it blocked a pillar of flame unleashed by an ancient red dragon high above. Meanwhile, at low altitude, an ancient black dragon seized the moment, erupting from the earth to lunge through the air. It clamped its claws onto the skeletal dragon’s spine—which lacked a connection to the lower body—and exerted every ounce of its strength, attempting to wrench it aside.

The bone claws raised for defense were indeed knocked off balance, and the black dragon’s strength was truly the greatest among all its kin. This pincer attack forced the skeletal dragon to tilt, but Aerilian clearly would not grant them the chance to bring the titan down.

A flash of silver radiance streaked by. Aerilian, wielding a blade of brilliant silver, transformed into a phantom stream of light. In an instant, she appeared beside the red dragon above. A few rapid flashes followed, and countless bloody gashes erupted across the red dragon’s hide.

In the blink of an eye, the dragon’s body was carved with wounds deep enough to expose bone. Then, a jet of silver energy erupted from the back of its neck, vaporizing flesh and muscle until only a ghastly, white skeleton remained.

"Skreeeeee!"

The skeletal dragon slammed its claws into the earth, embedding them dozens of meters into the bedrock. The black dragon’s dragging force carved deep, jagged trenches into the ground, scattering broken stone in its wake.

But even the black dragon could not truly shake this monstrous pile of bones. The titan forced itself to a halt, then turned its torso and swung a massive arm downward in a brutal, crushing blow.

"Boom!"

The clenched bone claw accelerated downward, slamming into the black dragon’s body. The force of the blow shattered most of its bones and pulverized its internal organs in an instant, driving the creature deep into the earth. Mud and rock sprayed outward from the recoil, shaking the ground and leaving a scene of utter devastation.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom!"

The skeletal dragon pounded the earth, accelerating frantically toward the Dragon God’s position. The magic it had conserved by not fighting at full strength was meant for this moment—when the strongest dragons were occupied by the heretics and the path ahead finally lay clear.

As for the dragon swarms that had retreated while the heretics confronted their kin, they now swarmed back. Yet, compared to the skeletal dragon, their speed was far too slow; they could only struggle to keep pace with the bone-titan as it charged across the ground, watching it approach their King.

"Are you ready?"

Kog'Maw’s soul-fire flickered, his words transmitted via telepathy to the sprite dragon Bicu, who floated beside him in a void-like state of magical energy.

"Ready. I have been charging my amplification ability. This attack may not be powerful enough to defeat our King, but it will be enough to clear the path for Aerilian."

Inside the skeletal dragon, the two dragons finished their exchange. Streams of necromantic magic flowed from the skull, surging throughout the titan’s frame until the entire carcass was wreathed in black smoke.

From afar, one could only see a colossal skeleton trailing clouds of black smoke that blotted out the sky, advancing with an unstoppable, overwhelming momentum to crush its enemies.

"Hum!"

A giant, translucent barrier of energy rose from the ground, blocking the skeletal dragon’s path. While still some distance from the Dragon God, his remaining guards had finally appeared.

They were three ancient dragons whose bloodlines had begun to purify, walking the same path as the Dragon God. They were, in truth, the most powerful individuals on the island.

The incredibly thick and sturdy magic barrier was pushed back hundreds of meters by the skeletal dragon’s sudden impact, yet it managed to force the unstoppable titan to a halt. Now, the skeletal dragon had to face attacks that could truly threaten its existence.

"Crack!"

Time seemed to hit a pause button—and indeed, it had. One of the ancient blue dragons, relying on its species' exceptional talent for time and prophecy, had cast a slightly weakened version of Time Stop without the need for lengthy preparation.

The field of frozen time expanded, swallowing the skeletal dragon just as it raised its arm to smash through the barrier.

The ancient red dragon, permitted by the caster, began to accumulate unimaginable energy within this field of frozen—or rather, extremely slowed—time.

Crimson radiance erupted from its chest, spreading across its entire body until the dragon became a semi-transparent, dazzling state of high-energy.

This would be the deafening funeral dirge it played for the skeletal dragon. This dragon-breath cannon, gathering all its power, was something the skeletal dragon could not withstand. As the primary attacker among the Dragon God’s three loyal guards, its destructive power was off the charts. Combined with the blue dragon’s support, almost nothing could survive a Time Stop.

However, just as it focused all its intent on releasing the high-energy blast, the red dragon felt the frozen world around it suddenly resume its normal flow. The Time Stop had been dispelled!?

The anomaly of the skeletal dragon below also alerted it that something was wrong. The thing was trembling, and the surrounding magical concentration was not falling, but rising. It was the magic stored within the skeletal dragon leaking out—it was Corpse Explosion!

A skeleton of such immense size would normally be impossible for a necromancer to detonate; filling it with enough necromantic magic at once would baffle any practitioner.

But with the cooperation of Kog'Maw, a necromancer of the highest order, and Bicu, a sprite dragon with terrifying magical amplification, this unprecedented Corpse Explosion was achieved.

"No!"

The ancient red dragon cried out in alarm. Before the energy within its body was fully prepared, it erupted. A scorching, thick pillar of light seemed to pierce the heavens; it had to stop the final sequence of the Corpse Explosion.

Yet, this plan could not be completed. The urgency of the situation left no time to wonder why the Time Stop had abruptly ended, or what had become of the ancient blue dragon.

Aerilian appeared behind the red dragon. A spear forged of silver radiance pierced the red dragon’s heart—its energy core. In an instant, the accumulated power began to leak wildly. The high-energy blast ended just as it began, its life extinguished alongside it.

The shock and resentment in the red dragon’s heart were identical to the thoughts of the blue dragon, who had seen Aerilian—the one who had also cast the Time Stop—flicker before it and sever its neck with a tail transformed into a whip of obsidian silver.

Then, the unprecedented Corpse Explosion unleashed by the skeletal dragon detonated. The shockwave swept across the sky. The Dragon Island shook as the impact drove into the earth; the sea at the island’s edge rose in hundred-meter waves, and the surface was stripped away and plowed anew.

The most unfortunate were the mountains rising above the ground. The moment the shockwave struck, they were torn asunder. Mountains near the blast were instantly reduced to flying debris, while those further out collapsed one after another in the wake of the explosion.

The barrier released by the final ancient dragon met the blast at point-blank range. It had successfully blocked the skeletal dragon, but was now reduced to dust along with its caster by the Corpse Explosion.

The power of the blast surged into the clouds, instantly clearing the sky for dozens of kilometers. Dazzling sunlight poured down, yet it could not pierce the massive waves of dust kicked up by the explosion.

The ordinary dragons that had followed the skeletal dragon, attempting to stop it, were somewhat lucky; their speed had been unable to keep up with the rhythm of the battle. Ten kilometers away, they were struck by the shockwave and fell scattered, crashing into the ground and triggering a second earthquake.

The only one present who had not been substantially affected seemed to be the Dragon King, Wendel Mix, who hovered in the center of the island, wrapped in his wings like a chrysalis.

The shockwave of the explosion swept over his golden body without moving him an inch, leaving not even a scratch. Even as the battle reached his doorstep, he showed no intention of moving. This was only natural; he was the most powerful dragon of all. Even if part of his power had been dispersed to his "believers," the strength of his body had not waned.

Perhaps only one dragon present could break his defense...

Within the dust that blotted out the sky, a silver dragon burst through the smoke and soared upward. Nothing could stop Aerilian’s advance anymore; all obstacles had been cleared. The power she had prepared for so long, holding back until this very moment, could finally be unleashed.

The silver dragon flew at high speed, climbing higher and leaving a materialized silver light-rail in her wake. This was not a mere afterimage, but energy released from Aerilian’s own body. She was forging a blade capable of slaying the King.

Only now could one see just how massive the former King of Dragons truly was. His body was dozens of times larger than Aerilian’s. If she had used her ordinary silver blades, she likely wouldn't have even been able to pierce his hide. But the silver greatsword behind her could.

Her chest heaved as she released the power she had possessed since birth—a strength unlike any other dragon, impossibly vast. Aerilian felt an unprecedented sense of exhaustion.

But she had no intention of stopping to rest. Once this was done, there would be more than enough time for the dragons to recover.

Lifting the silver greatsword, forged from all the silver energy within her and dozens of times larger than herself, Aerilian swung the "dagger" of regicide down upon their former King, under the gaze of every dragon present.

The silver blade struck the King’s golden body. The toughest physique of any creature in this world appeared fragile before this silver sword.

The edge sliced through him as if cutting through ordinary flesh. It carved downward, stuttering momentarily when it hit bone, only to break through the joints and continue its path, until finally, it cleaved its target in two.

The collision and destruction of the world’s peak power carried a touch of the absurd, appearing excessively casual and abrupt.

Yet, as the saying goes, this was battle. After a long and arduous road, the result was a natural conclusion. The weapon of regicide, forged over a hundred years of preparation, had severed the King’s body.

Under the gaze of all dragons, all subjects of the Dragon God, the silver blade swung by Aerilian slashed diagonally, splitting the golden body of the Dragon God in two.

Witnessing the fall of the "God" they worshipped, a string snapped within the minds of the dragons. The sound of something breaking echoed as countless shackles were torn apart. Time seemed to stand still.

A weary voice, ethereal and equally exhausted, drifted into Arelian’s ears—a voice, hauntingly, she knew.

"Well done... heh."