Ch. 25
Chapter 25: Aurora the Dragon
Inside the castle, the Witch Carabosse had cast her magic to tear open a passage to Hell, drawing upon boundless infernal power that sent her strength surging to new heights. Hellfire in a sickly dark green blazed and roared around her entire body.
Colossal magical energy churned and surged wildly, lifting her form to hover in midair, from which vantage she looked down at Li Kainan below with contempt.
"Knight, I'll give you one last chance. Bring me Prince Adam's head, then get on your knees and beg for mercy……"
Li Kainan had no patience for her posturing. The terrifying power gathered throughout his body erupted all at once as he launched himself high into the air, straight toward Carabosse.
In nearly an instant, Li Kainan's form—too fast for the naked eye to follow—had already appeared in midair.
The Knight's Sword in his hand, blazing with pure white radiance and carrying the sacred Evil-Breaking Force, came sweeping down with tremendous force.
At this moment, Carabosse had already drawn upon the power of Hell, and the strength she now possessed was many times greater than it had been just moments ago.
Yet faced with Li Kainan's supremely sacred Evil-Breaking Force—a power capable of purging all evil—her Hell Magic was naturally countered!
Carabosse's formidable, malevolent infernal energy filled the air all around her. By rights, it should have been hers to freely command and direct against Li Kainan.
But caught beneath the sweep of that pure white sacred sword light, all that evil energy dissipated instantly—like morning mist dissolving before the rising sun.
The sickly green Hellfire wreathing Carabosse's body had been her greatest source of confidence that she, a "glass cannon mage," had nothing to fear from a powerful knight closing in at close range.
She had forcibly torn open the Hell Gate and drawn upon the power of Hell, and the Hellfire surrounding her had grown even more ferocious and terrifying because of it.
Carabosse had believed that such formidable Hellfire would be enough to withstand the sacred power emanating from Li Kainan.
Yet when she faced this single sword strike head-on, even the enhanced Hellfire proved utterly unable to resist—it shattered apart on the spot, scattering into tiny specks of green flame that flew in every direction!
Carabosse had no time to retreat. Blood sprayed from her abdomen.
That single slash had carved a horrific wound directly across her midsection—so severe it was nearly equivalent to being cleaved in half at the waist on the spot!
Li Kainan landed on the ground and looked up at Carabosse above him, his brow shifting slightly.
She still wasn't dead?
As a Witch who had mastered the power of Hell and one of the mightiest figures in the world, Carabosse was in a certain sense a being that had transcended death itself!
A wound this catastrophic—being nearly cleaved at the waist—would be more than enough to kill any ordinary person. Yet for her, it was evidently not quite so fatal.
The critical problem, however, was Li Kainan's Evil-Breaking Force. For someone whose power was rooted in hell, it was a natural counter and absolute nemesis!
The residual Evil-Breaking Force clinging to her wound was at this moment working like a corrosive agent, hissing with a sizzle-sizzle-sizzle as it continuously purged her evil infernal energy.
The horrific wound of being nearly cleaved at the waist did not pain Carabosse overmuch.
But as the Evil-Breaking Force eroded and purged the infernal energy within her body, it brought a piercing, bone-gnawing agony—driving Carabosse to unleash anguished wails she could no longer hold back:
"Aaaaaah!"
It was only at this moment that Carabosse clearly understood she had absolutely no way of dealing with Li Kainan.
If it were merely a matter of brute physical strength, that would be one thing—but Li Kainan possessed the Trait: Evil-Breaking Force.
Had it been any other Transcendent Individual coming to face Li Kainan, they would not have been driven to such passivity, so utterly without any means of fighting back.
But Carabosse's power came from Hell. Every spell she used was Hell Magic.
The power of Hell was formidable indeed—formidable enough that Carabosse had successfully thrown into chaos the Kingdom of Cape, the most powerful nation on the continent, the one that had the patronage of the Twelve Fairies.
Yet this infernal power was completely and utterly countered by the Evil-Breaking Force, pure and sacred, capable of purging all evil and malice.
As things stood, forget fighting Li Kainan—if she stayed here any longer, she would truly lose her life!
At that thought, Carabosse hesitated no longer. Gritting her teeth against her injuries, she turned and ran.
Gravely wounded, her strength drastically diminished, Carabosse could not even manage to flee very far—but she could escape through the spatial rift connecting to Hell outside!
Li Kainan's combat instincts were razor sharp, and the moment Carabosse turned to flee, he was already aware of it.
When it came to his enemies, Li Kainan always fought with everything he had to cut them down—he would never leave himself even the smallest seed of future trouble!
In Li Kainan's ice-cold, razor-keen eyes, Killing Intent surged and poured out like a raging tide.
His back and waist snapped into a sudden coil, every inch of bone and muscle beginning to explode with force.
The Trait: Perfect Physique—rivaling the bloodline of the gods—brought with it a physical power of unparalleled ferocity. Li Kainan suppressed it all to the absolute limit in this instant, then gathered it into a single point and detonated it!
The next instant, the ground beneath his feet shattered in a flash—and Li Kainan's figure vanished from where he stood.
A shockwave erupted thunderously. An afterimage that no eye could track, wrapped in bone-chilling Killing Intent, shot toward Carabosse as she fled toward the outside.
Stumbling in her retreat, Carabosse felt the whole of her body locked in the grip of that chilling, terrifying Killing Intent—her four limbs began to stiffen.
Since she had fully mastered the power of Hell, this was the first time she had ever felt the approach of death.
If she couldn't dodge it, she would absolutely die!
Carabosse didn't even have time to think. She activated her Teleportation Magic Blink and barely, barely avoided the strike.
She knew full well that her Teleportation Magic was agile but incapable of covering long distances.
Against Li Kainan—whose burst speed was extraordinary and whose stamina was inexhaustible—even injured as she was, she might dodge the first sword strike, or the second, but she would absolutely never dodge the third!
At this desperate, life-or-death juncture, she clearly had no more room to weigh her options. She played her very last trump card directly.
"Aurora, I'm releasing your bindings right now!" Carabosse cried out urgently at once.
The next instant, from within the spatial rift in the sky that led to Hell, came the sound of chains clanging and colliding.
From within the spatial rift above, a razor-sharp claw—wound tightly in iron chains—suddenly reached out.
As Carabosse released the Binding Magic, the iron chains that had been restraining that claw shattered link by link.
From beyond the spatial rift, a clear, resonant dragon's cry rang out!
Then the claw swung through empty air—and the spatial rift was immediately torn even wider.
The turbulent air current of Hell came pouring through, laden with sulfur and a foul stench, as an enormous body pushed its way out through the torn spatial rift.
It bore a pair of dragon horns, grey scale armor, and thin membranous wings—the most quintessential form of a Western Dragon.
Its body was well over 20 meters in length—large enough to be called truly massive—yet it lacked the grotesque bloated quality of a fat, lizard-like dragon. On the contrary, it appeared slender and lithe.
Hm. Strangely, one glance was enough to tell anyone—this was a female dragon……