Then came a second, then a third... countless distorted beams of black light tore through the earth.
“Dammit! Get out of here!” Yserazor let out a thunderous roar, his body shifting as he reverted to his dragon form.
With a sweep of his dragon claws, invisible spatial power wrapped around Starlight and the others like soft silk.
Even the massive Idra was enveloped in silver light, hovering in the air in an incredible display of space magic.
“Hold on tight!”
The Rift Dragon King let out a long cry, the dragon wings behind him beating once with explosive force.
The group felt their vision blur as the surrounding scenery twisted and changed like a kaleidoscope. When they could see clearly again, they were already a thousand meters in the air.
“Go straight to the Hatching Hall!” You’s voice pierced through the spatial barrier. “We need to regroup with the others immediately.”
Yserazor responded with a long roar. A second later, a rotating spatial tunnel appeared before them.
Starlight felt as if his internal organs were being squeezed into a ball as the intense discomfort of spatial teleportation washed over him.
When their feet finally touched solid ground again, the shattered dome of the Hatching Hall came into view.
“Chief, what’s the situation now?!”
As soon as they landed, Yserazor rolled and transformed back into his human form, shouting toward the Gold Flame Dragon King not far away.
“Can even the Treasury not hold that guy back? If that’s the case, we have to retreat for now!”
Seranox stood at the edge of the bottomless pit, his golden cloak fluttering violently in the updrafts surging from the abyss.
He didn’t turn around, silently staring into the pitch-black rift beneath his feet.
“The Treasury did indeed block Salenzo’s path, but he seems to have found another way.”
Starlight suddenly remembered the battle at the lava lake. Earlier, when Seranox fought the Dragon Ancestor's legacy husk, he had unleashed his strongest blow.
That strike hadn't just pierced through the body; it had opened a massive hole in the mountainside.
This had caused an irreversible crack in the structure of the Dragon Race Holy Site, which was originally a single, solid entity.
“In other words, Salenzo is about to come out?” Starlight pressed.
“Yes, it’s unavoidable now. The good news is that since Salenzo chose to come through that gap, it proves his power hasn’t reached the worst-case scenario yet,” the Gold Flame Dragon King said, nodding solemnly.
With a flick of his hand, a beam of golden light shot into the shadows, illuminating the spiderweb-like cracks spreading across the rock walls.
Everyone followed the light. It was clear that this former core and holy site of the Dragon Race was now in a precarious state.
“Do you plan to face him here? If we keep fighting...” You looked at Seranox and asked calmly.
Seranox gave a slight nod as golden flames began to rise around him.
“The holy site and the Hatching Hall can be rebuilt if they are lost, but we cannot let that guy leave this place. Since Salenzo covets the power of the ancestors—”
“Then let this place become his grave!” Yserazor finished, his hands already beginning to construct a spatial barrier beneath his feet.
“My grave?! Hahahaha!”
A sudden burst of wild laughter from the abyss shook the entire Hatching Hall.
Salenzo’s voice sounded like a thousand rusty blades scraping against the rock walls, carrying a hair-raising echo.
Starlight’s eyes narrowed. He keenly noticed that the dark red energy flowing through the cracks in the rock was converging toward a single point in a rhythmic pattern.
Boom—!!!
With a deafening explosion, the rock wall below shattered like fragile glass. Before the debris could even hit the ground, it was ground into dust by a terrifying surge of dark energy.
The Hatching Hall began to shake violently, and the spatial barrier Yserazor had just laid down was blown to pieces in an instant.
“Get back!”
Seranox roared. With a wave of his hand, a pillar of golden flame several dozen meters thick transformed into the shape of a dragon, striking directly at the shattered opening.
“Did it work?”
Seeing the golden flames swallow the entire gap, Yserazor’s face lit up with joy.
But his happiness didn’t last long. A massive claw covered in pitch-black bone armor burst through the wall, and the golden flames blocking the gap were forcibly swatted away.
In the next second, a terrifying figure from hell crashed through the rock wall—the Dragon God's body occupied by Salenzo slowly crawled out of the massive hole.
Salenzo’s form had undergone a massive change since Starlight and the others had last seen him.
The originally skeletal body was now filled out, and the muscles beneath the pitch-black scales writhed like living things.
The massive hole in his chest that Seranox had blasted open was now completely healed. Faintly, a human face identical to Salenzo’s could be seen emerging from the black dragon’s heart.
Centering on this face, countless veins of dark red energy pulsed beneath the skin, emitting an eerie light.
“Do you see it? This is the power of a god...” Salenzo’s face spoke, but the voice came from the dragon’s throat at the same time.
The eerie, double-layered voice vibrated through the air, creating a bone-chilling resonance.
Even from a distance, Starlight felt a needle-like sting on his skin—a material pressure formed from pure divine pressure.
“Tch! Salenzo, you bastard, you actually dared to desecrate the ancestor's legacy husk! Dammit!”
After seeing the appearance of the black dragon, Yserazor cursed and launched an attack again.
A spatial rift several meters wide appeared out of thin air, cutting toward the dragon’s long neck like a blade.
But to everyone’s surprise, Salenzo opened his massive maw and bit directly into the incoming spatial slash.
Tanking space magic with one's body was something absolutely ridiculous, even for a dragon.
They thought Salenzo was courting death, but the moment his jaws snapped shut, a black light flashed within his mouth.
Crack!
That spatial strike, capable of cutting through anything, was actually bitten into pieces like a fragile cracker! Shards of broken space splattered in Salenzo’s mouth, but they couldn't even scratch his scales.
“Space magic? Laughable!” The human face on the dragon’s chest sneered, and the vessel-like patterns in his body pulsed even more violently.
“In the face of true divine power, it is all nothing but child’s play!” At the same time, another voice echoed from the dragon’s head.
The shockwave from the dual voices shattered the surrounding rock walls completely. Amidst the falling debris, the Dragon God's body controlled by Salenzo finally broke free from its restraints.
With a beat of his wings, the dragon’s massive body took to the air at an incredible speed. Like a thundercloud carrying lightning, he soared into the sky with peerless majesty.
Starlight waved his hand to cast a mana shield over everyone's heads, blocking the falling rocks.
Through the gaps between his fingers, he clearly saw that the sky the black dragon’s wings swept past was actually developing tiny, distorted cracks!
“Is this kind of power really something we can contend with?” This desperate thought surfaced uncontrollably in everyone’s hearts.
Even the scales of adult dragons like Idra and Imira stood on end from instinctive fear, trembling slightly under Salenzo’s shadow.
However, facing this scene, Seranox—the strongest combatant—remained exceptionally calm.
The Gold Flame Dragon King looked up at the dragon shadow that blotted out the sun, his golden vertical pupils reflecting the other’s distorted silhouette.
“Is this the ultimate realm you pursue, Salenzo?”
His voice suddenly became ethereal and distant, as if coming from the other end of the river of time. “Do you know what price must be paid... once you cross that line?”
As he spoke, Seranox’s body began to expand. But this dragonization was completely different from before; the originally gold and red scales lost all their crimson, turning into pure gold.
Only at the tips of his dragon horns did a trace of blood-red remain, like the last rays of light before sunset.
“Salenzo? No...”
The black dragon in the sky suddenly let out a nearly manic laugh, the human face on his chest and the dragon head both twisting into an eerie smile.
“From the moment I accepted this divine husk, I was no longer the Obsidian Dragon King you knew!”
The wings behind him fully unfurled, and the dark red patterns beneath his scales lit up like fire. The dual voices finally merged into a roar that shattered the clouds:
“I rule over destruction and death. I am the beginning of the end, the terminator of all things! My name is Des-do-ra-ka!”
The moment this True Name was spoken, the ancient barriers of the entire Dragon Nest cracked simultaneously.
Countless runes burned away in the void, as if even this world refused to acknowledge his existence.
“The Dragon King of Death? A fitting title... But do you think I will let you destroy this world?”
Seranox took a deep breath, and flames as brilliant as the sun rose from his golden scales.
Beneath the sky, one golden and one black dragon shadow faced each other from across the void.
Golden flames and dark red death energy clashed in the air, sending out sparks that distorted space.
Watching this, You suddenly turned around and gently stroked the top of Lian’s head with his slender fingers. His silver eyes held a tenderness Starlight had never seen before.
“Help me take care of her.”
“Wait! Uncle, are you going to—” Before Lian could finish her cry, You’s figure transformed into a brilliant silver light.
The moment the Night God's power was fully unleashed, You entered the Half-God realm once again, soaring straight into the heavens like a silver moon rising against the sky.
In this moment, the entire sky lost its original color, leaving only a golden sun, a silver moon, and... that pitch-black eternal night that sought to swallow everything.
Rate on N.U.
