Chapter 177 : Chapter 177
Chapter 177
[All of you, kneel!]
The guardian of the continent. The life form closest to a god.
These were titles of reverence referring to the mere dozens of dragons that existed long ago.
However, in the process of driving the Demon Lords to hell, almost all dragons met their deaths, and they all lost their lives at once towards the end of the war.
Did they die valiantly in battle against the Demon Lords? No.
[My wrath! Will sweep you all away!]
It was all because of the traitor, Kragach.
Kragach, who was an elder of the dragon clan, killed the Lord first as the war was ending, ambushed and dealt with the other elders, and slaughtered the rest of the clan, not leaving even a single young hatchling.
And then, he stole the Dragon Heart, the energy aggregate of the dragonkin, and fled to hell.
Power. Stronger power…! Anger!
Solely for that.
The life form closest to a god? No.
To become a god!
[Die!]
As his wings flapped, dozens of flame tornadoes connecting the earth and sky were created, sweeping through the capital, and as he swung his tail, buildings collapsed.
The humans where his gaze fell all collapsed, unable to withstand the pressure, or died instantly.
[Block this too! You arrogant thing!]
“Cough, cough!”
The Frost Knight Daine, who had been holding on with desperate will, was also sent flying far away after blocking a flame cannon blasted from Kragach's snort. She coughed up blood, having suffered internal injuries.
The knights who had been relying on her and holding on were frightened.
“S-Sir Daine!”
“Th-the ice barrier has been breached…!”
[Khahahahaha! How is it?! This is my wrath! My power!]
Kragach's body grew even larger. No, it was beginning to cross over more and more.
The boundary connecting hell and the continent was slowly widening due to Kragach's power…. It wasn't long now. A little. Just a little more, and Kragach's ‘complete descent’ would be complete.
[I will show you my power! I will show you the true wrath of a god!]
The moment Kragach roared, the moonlight that had been waiting for an opportunity aimed for his neck.
“O, moon!”
The Knight of Moonlight, Celina, had swung her Moonlight Sword. It was a blow aimed at an opening, but.
[Hmph! I was waiting for you!]
Flames erupted from between the rough and hard black scales that seemed like hardened lava.
“Kgh?!”
Celina was pushed back by the flames and sent flying far away. Her whole body caught fire, leaving a trail as she flew and crashed deep under the rubble of a collapsed building.
“…”
Two of the Platinum Knights were down. They might be able to return soon, but one thing was certain.
‘We are at a disadvantage.’
Wilhelm gripped the red bow in his hand tightly. There was nothing he hadn't been able to do with this bow, but today seemed to be an exception.
He had gone through many battles in the process of rising to the rank of Duke. But at some point, he had been cooped up in the Imperial Castle, only handling politics and administrative work. Had his archery skills rusted because of that?
‘It's been a long time since I've felt this helpless….’
The army he had brought with him was of no help.
He had no intention of belittling their role in blocking the army of hell and saving the citizens, but the root of the disaster was the Demon Lord Kragach.
He was a being beyond the heavens, capable of single-handedly burning the Imperial Capital and raising an army of hell.
‘I can only hope that Tauforos and Amulrent will come to our aid.’
[Ooh, you red archer. Are you frightened?]
Kragach's burning eyes fixated on Wilhelm.
Kragach, who had defeated Daine and Celina, looked triumphant. Wilhelm, who met the eyes of the master of the wrathful hellfire that was burning Imperium Land to the ground and about to reach the Imperial Castle, said.
“No.”
With his middle and index fingers, he took the brim of his fedora and lightly tossed it. The fedora, flying on the wind, soon hit the scales on Kragach's face and fell powerlessly. A middle-aged smile formed amidst the flames.
“I’m overflowing with power for the first time in a while.”
[Hah! We shall see, you arrogant mortal!]
Kragach's foreleg stomped the ground. Lava bullets, engulfed in high heat and beginning to burn, were shot in all directions.
‘Here I go.’
Wilhelm ran forward. He calmly dodged the lava bullets flying towards him one by one.
[Ho-oh, quite impressive!]
His tail swung. Instead of jumping to dodge, Wilhelm slid underneath and aimed his bow upwards.
‘Now!’
The moment the tail passed, he fired a Red Arrow, and the swinging tail was sent flying back.
[…!]
The dragon's tail, filled with strength, changed its trajectory and was brought down towards the spot where Wilhelm had slid.
But Wilhelm had also dodged in time, and he began to weave through the scattering debris, getting closer and closer to Kragach.
[Like a little mouse!]
Towards Kragach who had thrust his face forward, a volley of Red Arrows was fired. An explosion and smoke arose, but through the smoke, Kragach's head reached in front of Wilhelm.
[Khaha! You brat! I got….]
“Harmadun Secret Technique.”
Wilhelm, reflected in Kragach's eyes, was in a proper posture in mid-air, aiming at the fire dragon.
“Glory Rose.”
Platinum Numbering No.4 Wilhelm. The strongest archer in the world and a person with military power that could be counted on one hand in the current generation.
The secret technique of Harmadun that he was showcasing.
[…Kgh!]
Kragach hurriedly lifted his head to dodge, but it ended up being a move that exposed his chin.
An arrow was shot from Wilhelm's red bow. It looked like a small, red rose.
[I, I…?!]
Kragach, who was about to dodge, paused. Had he just performed an evasive maneuver? Against a mere insect's attack? A single, insignificant arrow?!
[Don't make me laugh!]
Instead of evasion, a counterattack! Kragach's breath was spat at Wilhelm. But the fired rose cut through Kragach's flames.
[Lies!]
It embedded itself in the chin of Kragach, who was trying to pull his face away even at the last moment.
[Keoheok!]
As if stretching, Kragach's massive body arched back greatly towards the sky.
The army witnessed that sight. The power of the world's strongest archer. A single blow that made even the suddenly appeared demon dragon of hell unable to hold its head steady.
“Keuuooooook!”
But the scream that echoed was Wilhelm's.
[…Quite impressive.]
Kragach's highly arched head slowly came back down.
[Even though I can only use about 50% of my original power because I’m in the middle of descending, that was a little jarring.]
“Keuu, uwaaaaaaak!”
The moment the glorious rose embedded itself in his chin, Kragach also reached out and snatched Wilhelm who was suspended in mid-air.
Crack, with a sound like a dry branch breaking, Wilhelm's scream echoed.
From the sight of the veins on his forehead bulging, one could tell how much pain he was in.
[Behold. The Platinum Knights you worshipped like gods have all fallen. Before the true god, false idols only burn and melt away.]
Of Wilhelm, caught in Kragach's foreleg, of Celina, buried in the rubble of a building, of Daine, who was staggering but still trying to hold her body up, of the entire army that had followed them.
The fear of Kragach was engraved on all the eyes that looked up at the great Demon Lord of wrath.
[All of you… disappear.]
Kragach's entire body glows red. The immense amount of flame squirming inside between the black scales leaks out, unable to be contained.
“If, if that thing explodes…!”
“We have to run! The capital! The capital will become a sea of fire!”
Yes, a bomb. Like a living bomb, flames are generated and stored endlessly inside Kragach. For the one moment of explosion.
[This is my flame that heats hell! The true hellfire!]
The moment Kragach lifted his head up and then slammed it down, opening his mouth!
“Then you can spread that in hell.”
A crimson trajectory cut through the air.
[Kuaaak!]
Kragach, who couldn't even be properly damaged without Stellar Force, shed blood.
The granite-hard black scales were split straight down, and Kragach's right eye was even slashed and burst.
And in that fleeting moment, a person who looked like a crow rescued the captured Wilhelm.
[Keuu, aaaaaak! Who is it! Who dares—!]
The Dragon Fear resounded thunderously through the Land. It was Kragach's wrathful cry. A roar that would shatter the mind of any human who heard it, but.
“This body?”
The woman answered leisurely.
Her presence was beautiful and dignified, and above all, confident.
“The last empress of Defardly.”
[W-What?]
Defardly. Who didn't know that name.
The most powerful nation that had once been on the verge of uniting the continent for the first time.
A name famous enough to have reached the ears of the Demon Lords who coveted the continent.
He had heard that there was a small secret society that carried on its legacy, but wasn't it just a trivial organization of about 1,000 members?
He had even heard that it had recently fallen. Surely, the leader of that organization….
“Anette von Duel Defardly. Has graced this place with her presence.”
It was a confident introduction, enough to even cut off Kragach's thoughts.
She stood confidently in front of the Demon Lord of the Seat of Fury, the demon dragon of hell, unafraid of the majesty he exuded, holding the treasured sword of the Defardly imperial family.
Her glossy, straight black hair and red eyes were the very symbol of Defardly, the ‘Red-Eyed Crow’.
As befitted the word empress, she was not alone.
“Knight, please rise!”
The Defardly Knights. They were helping Daine and Celina, who had been defeated by Kragach, to their feet.
Anette's close aide, the Red Knight Verdi, also took Wilhelm and moved him to a safe place.
It was very annoying, but the self-proclaimed empress who had appeared before him was too much of a burden to worry about them.
“Has my answer to who I am been sufficient?”
[I did not ask for your lineage. What in the world is that? That unusual aura. How can a human who is not a Star Child of Cosmos….]
In the middle of Imperium Land, where flames were flying.
“Shall we just say I’m a crow repaying a kindness? No, that lacks grace. So, hmm….”
The self-proclaimed empress becomes an empress in the true sense of the word.
“Let’s go with Crow Empress.”
Anette's form disappeared.
Kragach's eyes widened. He had lost her movement.
[…!]
No matter how limited his power was because his descent was interrupted! To lose track of a mere human's movement!
But this place was already his domain. A present-day hell where hellfire had descended.
Following the Crow Empress' movements, the hellfire flutters, revealing her position. The direction she appears from is, above his head!
[You think I'll be beaten again!]
Kragach, who had lifted his head, spat a breath at the sky. It was an overwhelming presence that dyed the sky red, turning the dark night sky into day.
“Haap!”
The Crow Empress Anette's battle cry resounded, and a crimson line was drawn. Like a raptor descending on its prey.
Right after a high-dimensional clash that could not be grasped by ordinary human perception, both the flame and the sword strike disappeared without a trace.
[….]
“…”
Anette lands on the rubble of a burnt and collapsed building in the distance.
The end of the crow-feathered cloak she wore was scorched.
However, Kragach's facial scales also cracked, and a very small part of them, though just a part, fell to the ground.
“As expected of a Demon Lord. There's a reason Sir Martin was so wary.”
[Martin…?]
Kragach remembers the name that suddenly popped out.
At every moment when the dozen or so plans that Keltu had prepared with confidence to swallow the continent were all crushed, his name was there.
The defeat of Brahmus was the same. And, now too!
[Him, him again?]
The dragon's eyes flash with a startling light.
[I see…. So that's what it was! It wasn't the Star Child! He too was just a pawn in the raging storm of fate! The storm of constellations caused by Cosmos, the very center! The one who stood in the eye of the typhoon, weaving the board and planning, was Martin! That bastard! Damn that Keltu bastard! He must have known that fact before us, but he didn't tell us!]
The demon dragon of hell is enraged.
[So it was! So it was! I couldn't even know who the real enemy was, so I was bound to be defeated! Every plan I made was bound to collapse! The one who truly must be killed is that human named Martin!]
“That will not happen.”
The scales tip.
“Because the Crow Empress is here.”
They clash once more. It was a battle between the Crow Empress and the demon dragon of hell that would be recorded in history for a long time.