Chapter 483: King vs King (IV)
Just as the Leviathan King prepared to descend upon Freya and crush her body, Vlad dashed from the crater, his heart beating once more and filling him with energy one final time. He grabbed the Leviathan King from behind, tightening his grip over the monster’s torso. The Xaos King’s eyes blazed with raw wrath and hatred, yet a gentle smile appeared on his lips as he glanced down at the Viking princess lying on the ground.
"I wish we had more time."
Freya could have sworn she heard those words in her mind, though Vlad’s lips never moved. Something about the conviction in his gaze and the silent heartbreak in his expression conveyed that unspoken message more powerfully than sound.
"ARRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"
An unearthly scream of rage tore from Vlad’s throat as if he channeled the vengeful spirits of all who had perished in the vast war ravaging the continent. At that precise moment, the Inferno Comet Runic Set etched across his flesh began to glow with searing intensity. Flames, lightning, and surges of pure destructive force danced around Vlad’s frame. In the next instant, he propelled himself and the Leviathan King into the sky at a shocking velocity.
From every corner of the battlefield, eyes turned toward the sight: a fiery pillar, like a shooting star of flame and lightning, soared higher and higher into the heavens. Its ascent generated sonic boom after sonic boom, each burst of compressed air marking another threshold broken. The force of their climb shook the atmosphere, surpassing Mach 10 with terrifying ease!
The Leviathan King struggled with every ounce of its power, trying to break free of Vlad’s vise-like grip. Yet the young man refused to relent, all his remaining power and determination fueling this last desperate maneuver.
After nearly a minute of explosive flight, they reached Terra’s exosphere! At that extreme boundary between planet and space, Vlad’s grip on the Leviathan King finally slipped for a heartbeat. The monster momentarily found freedom and attempted to use its propulsion to dash away into the near-vacuum. Vlad, however, refused to let it escape. He lunged, catching the Leviathan King’s left shoulder with his hand, and began to strike it relentlessly as they both started their plummet back down.
"AHHHHH!" The Leviathan King howled in agony as the intense heat of atmospheric reentry scorched its back and limbs. Yet, even while enveloped in the fiery sheaths of air friction, it struck back at Vlad, the force of those counterpunches enough to snap bones.
The Xaos King only responded with a vicious, bloodied grin. He took blow after blow with a grim acceptance, continuing to pummel the monstrous king with his right arm until the bones there began to fracture. Then, running out of usable limbs, he resorted to ramming his own skull against the Leviathan King’s, slamming headbutt after headbutt into the creature’s brow. The monster finally reeled, disoriented by Vlad’s impossible tenacity!
At that point, the Leviathan King’s resistance seemed to dwindle. Vlad closed his eyes for just a second. In that fleeting pause, countless faces rushed through his mind: a small yellow cat, a fierce young woman, a tiny white dog, a steely man with white hair, and many more. All those who fought and bled with him. All those who trusted him to deliver humanity from this final, apocalyptic threat. The images faded, replaced by unwavering resolve in his reopening eyes.