Chapter 221: Five Against One
"Is that Ignis?" Zephir couldn’t help but ask as he looked ahead of him.
Everyone’s gaze, even the Excidium’s, was fixed on the same spot, the very source of the crushing pressure weighing down on them.
Floating high above them was Ignis, though he looked vastly different from before.
Like Darius, he had also developed scales on his skin, and behind his back was a pair of large dragon wings and a tail.
His red hair had turned completely black, but unlike Darius, whose hair was changing because of the Void’s blessing, Ignis’s transformation was purely the result of his dragon’s power.
His Iris were the only thing that retained their red color, but they were now glowing, and his pupils had turned vertical, similar to a reptile’s.
On his face was an even larger grin as he looked down at them all.
At the moment of his death, his compatibility with his dragon had suddenly spiked, allowing him to unlock the Dragon Sovereign’s Mantle.
But just like Darius, he was running on borrowed time, perhaps even less, considering that he was getting used to a dragon’s heart.
Speaking of which, Ignis looked towards the Excidium and noticed that his heart was still in its hand.
"I’m going to need you to give that back," he said pleasantly, "and then we’re going to finish this."
The creature turned its attention towards him with interest. One of the pests that was supposed to be dead suddenly seemed a bit threatening.
It looked down at the heart, about to crush it, but just before its hand could clench around it,
BOOM!
Something slammed into it at high speeds, launching it towards the far wall of the arena.
{I told you the heart was unnecessary.} Ignis’s dragon’s voice was heard in his head.
In his scaly hand was now his very own heart, still beating.
Now that he had it again, he had no idea what to do with it; after all, his heart had already been replaced with a dragon’s.
{Throw it away!} The dragon insisted in his head, and Ignis had no choice but to comply.
He looked at it one more time before setting it on fire and then tossed it aside.
It dissolved into flames before it reached the ground, leaving behind only a residual mana.
"Hm," Ignis said.
{Stop looking at it like that,} the dragon said, {You don’t need it anymore.}
"I’m aware," Ignis said, "I just didn’t expect throwing away my own heart to feel so casual."
After his words, he turned back towards his opponent, who was pulling itself out of the rubble.
It seemed completely unharmed, well, almost, but flames were clinging to its arm, a trait of dragon flames.
Unfortunately, the Excidium wasn’t going to let the flames burn until his mana was depleted.
With a simple tap, it extinguished the flames and then ’looked’ towards Ignis, who still had a smile on his face.
"Surprised?" He asked, but the creature gave no response....not that it could anyway.
"I’ll be honest," Ignis said, looking at Excidium across the ruined arena, "I’m a little annoyed that you killed me.
"But since I owe this power to you, I’ll let it slide," he said as he floated back up, "instead, I’ll use you to see exactly how much stronger I’ve become. "
A moment after his words, the snow falling around them suddenly seemed to stop mid-air.
The air itself seemed to warp as Ignis flapped his wings, launching himself towards the Excidium.
The creature watched him approach before calmly lifting its hand and opening its palm.
BOOM!
An explosion erupted the moment Ignis reached it, forcing the remaining Grand Dukes and even the King to shield their faces.
The smoke gradually dispersed, revealing Ignis’s fists stopped mere inches from the creature’s face, blocked by a light barrier.
The barrier quickly started developing cracks before it completely shattered, allowing Ignis’s fist to pass through.
Unfortunately, the Excidium managed to teleport away just in time to avoid the attack.
In retaliation, it lifted its arm in the air, and just above it, multiple weapons made of hard light were suddenly formed.
Without hesitation, the creature launched the weapons towards Ignis, and he was completely ready to dodge.
But just before they could reach him, the weapons were suddenly encased in ice before they shattered, reminding the Excidium that Ignis wasn’t the only pest it was fighting.
It turned toward Boreas, who had a deadpan expression on his face.
A mistake.
BOOM!
Ignis quickly took the opportunity created and managed to land a hit on the creature again, sending it skidding backwards across the arena floor.
"It seems it can’t safely prioritize all of us at the same time," Zephir muttered as he watched the creature recover.
"Then this is our chance," King Magnus said as his blue eyes started glowing again.
Since the Excidium couldn’t risk keeping its attention away from Ignis for too long,
The four were given room to work.
Before they could make their move, Magnus frowned before saying, "Move."
The Grand Dukes immediately complied, and a second later, beams of light crashed down where each of them had been standing, completely charring the ground they had occupied moments before.
An attempt from the creature to deal with all the pests in one go, an attack that had failed.
It seems they couldn’t let their guard down even though Ignis was keeping it busy.
"Zephir," Magnus called out, and the grand duke of the West just nodded before extending his arm.
The Excidium was occupied with keeping Ignis’s attacks from reaching it, since that was the only threat posed to it, so it didn’t notice the actions of the other pests until it was too late.
The ground beneath it suddenly cracked open as vines erupted from below, completely wrapping around its legs before it could react.
The vines suddenly started burning, but before the creature could free itself from the restraints, Boreas spoke up, "Sebastian. "
The butler seemed to cross the distance between him and the creature in a second before launching a blast of wind towards one of its arms, since the creature managed to move in the last second.
That distraction allowed Zephir’s vines to quickly recover and grow towards the arm that Sebastian’s attack had landed on.
"Heads up," a voice suddenly came from above it, pulling its attention upwards.
Ignis was falling towards it with a flame-coated fist and then,
BOOM!
The creature managed to put multiple barriers between itself and Ignis.
One after another, they crumbled beneath the dragon man’s attacks until the sixth barrier finally managed to stop him.
Unfortunately, the attack was only supposed to act as a distraction and by the time the Excidium realized that,
BOOM!
The vines wrapped around his arm quickly grew flowers that exploded the second they appeared.
Before the creature had the chance to recover, the same arm was suddenly encased in ice.
Finally, Magnus appeared behind it with a serious expression on his face as he swung the sword in his hand.
Without hesitation, he slashed at the arm encased in ice, easily removing it.
Their original goal was its chest where the core lay, but since the arm was the opening they’d gotten, they took it.
The creature looked towards its arm...or rather, where its arm previously was, and if it had a face, one would recognize its surprise.
It seemed like a child, curious about the damage done to it by a bunch of pests, and it couldn’t seem to comprehend how they had achieved it.
Though the stump suddenly started growing back into an arm, completely regenerating as if the arm hadn’t been cut off in the first place.
The creature then turned towards the four, and a heavy aura fell on them all.
It might’ve been curious about how a bunch of pests managed to hurt it, but it was also aware of the fact that it needed to get rid of them now.
The disc behind its head suddenly started rotating faster, and the markings on its body started glowing.
Even Ignis, in his current form, could feel danger from the sheer amount of mana currently coming from the creature.
It didn’t help that his timer would run out soon, which meant that he had to deal with the Excidium quickly.
The creature lifted its arm towards him, but before Ignis could prepare to block whatever attack was about to be launched at him, the creature suddenly turned its arm towards the Grand Dukes and the king.
The next second, it launched a beam of light towards them, one that was too fast for them to react to.
Ignis’s eyes widened as time seemed to slow to a crawl, and without an ounce of hesitation, he launched himself in front of the beam, just before it could reach the four.
He landed in front of the beam and then,
BOOM!