Chapter 583: Burning
Vel’dranor’s grin widened.
The blade continued moving. There was barely any distance left between Kurogoroshi and his neck.
Yet this time, the dragon was ready.
BOOM!
Vel’dranor’s arm suddenly moved.
Far faster than Elion had expected.
His massive hand snapped upward, his fingers wrapping around the flat of Kurogoroshi’s blade just before it could reach his neck.
Krrrk!
The impact sent a violent tremor through the sword.
Elion’s eyes widened.
’He caught it?’
The Void-Touched Edge was still active, the distorted darkness covering the blade eating away at everything it touched.
Yet Vel’dranor’s palm did not immediately separate.
Instead, blood began to flow from between his fingers as his flesh was slowly cut apart by the blade.
Even so, he held on.
"Hehehe..." Vel’dranor’s golden eyes gleamed with excitement. "That trick won’t work twice, little human."
’He must have deployed his active defences!’
Elion’s expression darkened as he immediately tried to pull Kurogoroshi free, only to realise that he couldn’t.
Vel’dranor’s grip tightened.
BOOM!
A terrifying burst of physical strength erupted from the dragon’s body as Elion was suddenly dragged forward.
His eyes widened as Vel’dranor’s other fist came flying toward his face.
’Too fast!’
Elion immediately shifted his weight.
His body was pulled sharply to the side just as the fist passed through the space where his head had been.
BOOM!
The punch created a shockwave that was powerful enough to send the surrounding clouds scattering.
But Elion didn’t even get a chance to recover before he suddenly realised that the arm he had severed had already regenerated!
And now, that same arm was coming at him again, carrying an unfathomable amount of force and aimed straight for his head.
When the fist was mere inches from his face, Elion activated [Absolute Reflection], and an invisible, flat shield immediately appeared before his face.
WHAM!
BOOM!
The dragon’s fist struck the shield; the blow was reflected straight back at Vel’dranor without so much as making a ripple, sending him flying backward and spiralling through the sky.
Elion followed up without missing a beat. His eyes shimmered as he activated [flames of finality].
Crackling, eerily black flames immediately ignited, shrouding the dragon’s head in a curtain of flames, carrying nothing but the intent to burn him alive and reduce him to ashes.
Vel’dranor laughed when he realised what Elion was trying to do.
"Trying to burn me with flames!? Hahahahaha... How ignorant...!" His words were cut short when an inexplicable feeling suddenly hit him.
"???"
’Am I... burning?’
He had never experienced the sensation before, so he didn’t know what to make of it, but it actually caused him a great deal of pain.
The flames were cold.
Extremely cold.
They felt like the harsh winds of winter, seeping into his very being and filling him with an impending, dreadful sense of doom.
"What!?"
Vel’dranor was beyond rattled. Before he knew it, he found himself screaming his lungs out as the pain turned into an excruciating, mind-numbing pain.
"Ahhhhhhhh!!!"
He clutched at his face, trying to claw the flames away, but only ended up burning his arms as well.
He began thrashing about, kicking his feet wildly in the sky, but the flames continued to burn.
"What are these flaaaaames!?"
He could feel it.
Death was not too far off.
Without another choice, his body began to unravel back into its draconic form, hoping that perhaps doing so would extinguish the flames, or at least reduce the cold, burning pain to a smaller portion of his monstrous dragon body.
The transformation happened almost instantly.
Vel’dranor’s human form expanded violently as scales erupted across his skin, his limbs stretching and twisting as his bones reshaped themselves into their true draconic form, before leathery wings snapped back into existence.
BOOM!
A massive black dragon suddenly appeared in the sky.
His enormous wings spread outward, creating powerful gusts that scattered the surrounding clouds, yet the flames remained.
They clung to his head, and no matter how much he shook it, they refused to disappear.
"What is this!?"
Vel’dranor’s panicked roar shook the entire region.
He twisted his enormous head from side to side, then slammed one of his claws against his face.
BOOM!
The blow would have been enough to crush a mountain, but the black flames merely flickered.
Then they began to spread, crawling down his neck. Vel’dranor’s golden eyes widened in horror.
"No..."
It made no sense how the flames could cause him so much pain. Vel’dranor had experienced excruciating pain countless times before, to the point where losing a limb felt like nothing more than an itch to him.
Which is why he had barely flinched when Elion severed his arm. But this....!
There could only be one explanation as to why that was. The flames weren’t merely burning his flesh.
They were eating through something deeper inside of him.
Even his vitality seemed to be disappearing wherever the flames touched.
’What the hell is this power!?’
Vel’dranor flapped his wings desperately, attempting to gain distance from Elion, hoping that maybe that would extinguish the flames.
But Elion followed.
The young man’s figure remained suspended in the sky, his eyes cold as he watched the dragon thrash about.
He didn’t pursue recklessly.
He would have liked to charge straight ahead and use Mountain Splitting Slash to try and sever the monstrous dragon’s head, but something about those flames told him that if he so much as touched them, they would burn him as well.
This was the first time he was using this ability after all. So he opted to wait and see if the flames would finish the job.
"Stop!"
Vel’dranor suddenly roared.
Elion raised an eyebrow.
"Stop? Why should I stop?"
"Stop this!"
The dragon’s voice carried a hint of panic that would have been unimaginable only moments ago.
"You don’t understand what you’re doing!"
Elion’s expression remained indifferent.
"I know exactly what I’m doing."
The black flames intensified.
"These flames will burn the whole world down one day!" Vel’dranor’s enormous body suddenly jerked. "AAARRRGHHH!"
Another roar erupted from his throat as the flames spread farther along his body.
His scales began cracking and falling away, revealing glowing flesh beneath them before that too began turning black.
Vel’dranor’s movements became increasingly frantic.
His screams grew louder and louder, eventually turning into a loud, cacophonous bellow that deeply unsettled everyone in the city.
People began pouring out of their homes, those that hadn’t been already watching of course, drawn by the horrifying sound, only to look up and witness the harrowing sight of a Greater Dragon screaming in agony because of flames.
The very flames dragons were known to have sovereignty over were burning him alive.
Jammud watched with an appalled look, beads of sweat forming on his brow.
He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
"Those flames... Just what are they?" He couldn’t understand it.
How could a Greater Dragon, a creature whose bloodline granted him immense resistance to elemental attacks, be reduced to such a state by flames?
Would the same thing happen to him if those flames were thrown his way?
Definitely.
Flakes of Vel’dranor’s burning flesh began to fall from the sky.
With them came fragments of dark flame, scorching the ground as they landed, yet nothing seemed to be capable of extinguishing them.
The sight only grew more horrifying.
It wasn’t long before Vel’dranor’s charred, burning body began to descend as well.
It wasn’t clear whether he was doing so intentionally, trying to extinguish the flames by writhing on the ground, or simply because he no longer had the strength to stay airborne.
Either way, his massive body began to plummet from the skies.
Luckily enough, the streets below had long since been emptied out.
Vel’dranor crashed into the ground.
The impact sent an enormous shockwave through the city.
Dust and debris erupted into the air as the dragon’s massive body carved a deep crater into the street.
Several nearby buildings partially collapsed from the force of the impact. Nothing could be seen through the thick cloud of dust.
A low groan echoed from within.
Vel’dranor was still alive, but barely.
His massive body lay motionless within the crater, blackened scales and charred flesh covering much of his body.
The dark flames continued burning across his head and neck, occasionally spreading to other parts of his massive body.
The dragon’s vitality was so monstrous that even now, after suffering such terrifying injuries, he remained alive.
But the question was, for how long?