Chapter 299
Chapter 299: 1 Round, 3 Powerhouses—Youth Explodes!
In an instant, those 9 scorching crimson beams of light deepened their penetration into the earth's core.
The heavy fire chains within the Formation pulled taut at the center, as though poised to pierce straight through to the heart of the earth.
The blazing sickles extended beneath the ground, and the surrounding earth seemed to tremble in response.
The white surface began to undulate, as though some force were pushing it from below.
In the blink of an eye, the fire sickles suddenly unleashed their full force. The earth shuddered, mountain ranges collapsed, and massive boulders fractured.
The pale earth stretching for a hundred miles began to crumble apart in an instant, the ground surface peeled away as though lifted from beneath.
The enormous fire sickles surged underground, driving deep into the core of the earth.
The land seemed to be completely overturned, splitting apart in every direction.
The island's surface was as though fully inverted, chaos reduced to a swirling ocean of billowing dust.
At the same moment.
The Mages of Endymion, from a great distance, felt the tremendous force that radiated from there.
The 1st Layer of the City of Mages.
This was the most expansive stratum of the City of Mages, and simultaneously the most suitable for Mages to reside in.
The 1st Layer was situated very close to Endymion's outer boundary—one could even see the floating islands outside from here.
Quite a few Mages were standing on the 1st Layer, gazing toward the distance.
It was in a direction extremely far from here.
That massive floating island suspended high in the sky had, at that moment, suddenly given rise to an enormous, dazzling blaze of light.
Like a breathtaking colossal sphere, it kept expanding, flickering, its brightness surging sharply upward.
Until the Magic Power that erupted from within the island had fully expanded and swallowed the entire floating island whole.
Only when the blinding light of the explosion faded and the ball of Magic Power gradually weakened were these Mages finally able to open their eyes again and gaze at the distant island.
Everyone witnessed that desolate and awe-inspiring spectacle. Someone could not help but cry out in startled disbelief.
"That—isn't that the Twilight Expanse?"
Mages generally didn't go there to hone their skills, primarily because the place was saturated with danger.
And yet, that place had actually just exploded?
This explosion, for some reason, gave them all a strangely familiar feeling.
It was as though there was someone on the Council who had a particular fondness for blowing things up wherever they went.
No one knew just what kind of powerhouse it could be, to go charging into the Twilight Expanse and set off several blasts like that.
***
At that moment, Ryan pressed his hands against his dazed, spinning head, his legs nearly giving out beneath him.
Sensing that the surroundings were gradually returning to calm, he only then slowly raised his head and looked ahead.
After this astonishing magic had concluded, the scene around them had once again undergone a transformation.
The world around them looked as though it had been torn to pieces. The white floating rocks appeared especially fragile beneath the pitch-black night sky, as tiny and insignificant as grains of dust.
The ground had been almost entirely leveled by that immense Magic Power, leaving only a single intact patch of earth within the entire cloud layer.
All around, nothing but fractured, risen floating rocks.
At the center of that patch of earth, an enormous crater had even formed.
On this island floating in the sky, one could even see through the hollow at the earth's core to the cloud layers drifting all around it.
As for those Magical Creatures—they had long since vanished without a trace.
Under the magical onslaught terrifying enough to overturn an entire landmass, none of them could maintain their physical forms.
All had been annihilated, reduced to chaotic, disordered energy that drifted and scattered through the surrounding space.
This energy was nothing like the Magic Power used by ordinary Mages—it was far too chaotic and disordered to be put to any normal use.
The Chaos Dragon King lay sprawled across the fragmented floating rocks, barely managing to gather the countless shattered pieces beneath its body.
In that moment, its entire frame was covered in crimson scarring left by Magic Power, and even its body had shrunk considerably.
All 9 of its dragon heads had been completely obliterated by the magical assault, leaving only 4 heads that still swayed atop their necks.
As for the rest of the heads—they had long since been reduced to chaotic Magic Power under that terrifying attack, scattered and dispersed all around the Chaos Dragon King.
In that moment, Ryan's heart pounded like a great drum, a thunderous, muffled boom boom boom detonating ceaselessly within his chest.
He had never seen a Mage beat the Chaos Dragon King into this wretched a state.
The way it looked now, it had completely fallen into a critically injured condition.
But that also made sense—virtually no one ever came to this Twilight Expanse to fight the Chaos Dragon King.
The Chaos Dragon King had always resided on this floating island in a state of mutual non-interference with the City of Mages.
Perhaps because it had been bound by limitations since birth, it was like the Storm Dragon King of the Rhea Gorge—a near-legendary existence.
Very few had ever seen either of them in their true form.
And similarly, as though waiting for someone to come and deliberately challenge them—
They could never leave the places they inhabited.
In truth, Ryan found it rather puzzling as well.
Why was it that after fighting for so long, not a single scale had fallen from the Chaos Dragon King's body?
By all logic, after taking 2 hits like these, a normal dragon should have already started dropping gold coins.
Could it be that the Chaos Dragon King, due to being composed of Magic Power, actually had no scales on its body?
At that thought, Ryan's face flushed a deep shade of red with aggravation.
That bastard Rashel—this thing didn't even have scales, and he still somehow managed to put Chaos Dragon Scale down on the blueprint?
Ryan felt as though he had been thoroughly swindled, yet he had no proof.
But right now, whether there were scales or not no longer seemed to matter.
Because the Chaos Dragon King at this moment was already utterly exhausted and weakened.
From the look of things, if it took another hit—
This Dragon King would probably be killed by Viktor.
Indeed, he had still underestimated Viktor's strength.
Who else could casually throw out 2 War Magic spells back-to-back after only fighting for a short while?
But the Chaos Dragon King naturally had no intention of going down without a fight.
Even gravely injured, the Chaos Dragon King still let out a tremendous roar. Its twin pupils swelled with rage, fury born from deep within surging straight to its mind.
That enormous body began to contract violently.
The largest of the Chaos Dragon King's central heads opened its massive maw and swallowed whole all those Magical Creatures that had already died.
And that was not all—its remaining heads, along with its weighty body, began to dissolve.
As though turning the damage back upon itself, every trace of that chaos-like energy was drawn into its belly.
Dark clouds and lightning slowly enveloped it, condensing into a dark orb of light that gradually wrapped around it entirely.
BOOM! The orb shattered in an instant. A dense, terrifying wave of force spread outward from the center, radiating in all directions.
"This—this power!?"
Ryan was left somewhat dumbstruck. The Chaos Dragon King before his eyes seemed to have undergone an enormous change from before.
Its body had grown sleek and slender, with only a single razor-sharp head faintly emerging from the darkness.
Several massive claws were arranged along either side of its body, sharp talons likewise gleaming with black light.
Its flesh-wings bore its body aloft into flight, and in that moment it resided within a hazy chaos.
One massive claw seized hold of that drifting chaos and gave a sudden, violent pull—the dark clouds gradually dispersed.
2 enormous dragon pupils fixed their gaze upon Viktor, a surging, violent fury flowing through those eyes.
And its level had likewise undergone a new change.
Lv60—
Unlike the Storm Dragon King's infinite resurrection—
The Chaos Dragon King's characteristic was this:
Level evolution.
By devouring the energy of chaos, it forcibly elevated itself.
When the Magical Creatures of the Twilight Expanse died, the chaotic Magic Power that flowed from them could not be used by anyone.
Only the Chaos Dragon King could devour it—like bait prepared for it by nature itself.
Because it itself was the very embodiment of chaotic energy.
Ryan hastily grabbed the recording magic cube floating beside him, aimed it at the dragon before him, and ran a scan.
Then, he stared at the readout appearing on the cube in utter disbelief.
"S—si—SIX TIERS!!!"
This thing had grown all the way to the 6th Tier!
Ryan stared at the information displayed on the instrument and was immediately struck dumb.
If not now, then when?! Time to run!
Bzzzzz—
Within that deep, reverberating hum, the Chaos Dragon King drew everything around it into its enormous maw.
The white floating rocks and surging energy rapidly converged between its jaws, gradually condensing into a form of tremor-inducing energy.
An enormous energy cannon began to take shape within the Chaos Dragon King's mouth, its outline growing terrifyingly distinct.
The surrounding space descended into chaos and disorder beneath this dreadful consumption.
Constantly bending, tearing—threads of void seeped outward through the fissures, the clear air vanishing rapidly.
Drifting through that warped air was a peculiar smell of all things in the world mixed together into one indistinct mass, sending a chill through the bones.
Ryan was already in a complete frenzy, rummaging nonstop through his overalls, trying to find something that might get him through this crisis.
Yet in his panic, he seemed to have forgotten.
The main character of this battle was Viktor.
"As expected—2 times still isn't enough."
As those words fell, Viktor raised one hand.
Under Ryan's bewildered gaze, a pitch-black scale materialized out of thin air in his left hand.
One end of the scale was tilting toward the side where the dagger rested.
"Then let's try this one."
Magic Power surged through his palm, climbing along the scale like vines, fully releasing its power.
The pitch-black color flowed through the void, like ink spreading across rice paper, expanding outward in all directions.
Behind Viktor, countless Magic Formations suddenly appeared.
Intricate patterns set against the backdrop of his Coat, each Formation's center imprinted with complex Runes.
He closed his eyes, sensing the flow of this mysterious force, and after a moment of silence, opened his eyes again.
"【Pitch-black justice pierces through delusion, and scorching will transforms into the scale that judges good and evil】"
When Ryan saw Viktor produce that strange black scale, his face went blank with confusion.
When he saw Viktor raise the scale a second time, he was even more overwhelmed with shock.
"Wait, what are you doing?!"
The black scale broke free from Viktor's grasp and drifted upward toward the firmament.
The colossal scale body, stained as if with ink, floated through the air, and the originally clear sky appeared as though torn open into a patch of chaos.
Immediately after, the Chaos Dragon King's attack arrived in pursuit.
A violent storm, carrying with it a tremendous black-and-white force, swept in from the horizon and bore down upon Viktor.
But it was at that moment that the scale hanging in midair suddenly blazed with awe-inspiring radiance.
Using its own power, it withstood that terrifying surge of Magic Power.
The chaotic Magic Power shattered into countless brilliant streams of light, scattering outward in every direction.
The surrounding rubble was struck violently—even the very space around them was torn into cracks and fissures.
And at that moment, the scale gradually began to tilt toward the empty tray on the side without the dagger.
As though suppressed by some invisible pressure. In the end, the other side of the scale was pressed heavily downward.
"【The chaotic world has been corroded by filth, and the wicked that disdains blood shall be utterly annihilated in this judgment】"
The moment those words fell, an enormous Magic Formation instantly bloomed from the base of the scale, extending continuously downward toward the earth.
A silhouette gradually stood tall within the Formation.
Behind her, a pair of pitch-black wings unfurled.
Her entire body was clad in deep black armor, a half-visor helmet concealing her eyes within shadow.
Mysterious patterns danced across the helmet, as though carrying the power of ancient times.
Beneath tightly shut eyes, the corners of her lips maintained a resolute curve.
With only half her face exposed, one could already feel a transcendent, otherworldly beauty.
From within her body, a continuous aura of chaos and darkness emanated, her limbs covered across their surface in deep black patterns.
The dark, mysterious presence was reflected in Ryan's eyes—like rolling black flame, flickering in and out of view, stirring the imagination.
Within that oppressive aura there drifted a sense of sacrilege and obsession with the worldly, ceaselessly encroaching upon his heart.
It was as though steel needles had been driven through his very marrow, and even his skin felt as though it had endured alternating scorching and drenching.
And that goddess hovering in midair held a dagger, her expression unchanged and serene.
In an instant, a pitch-black shadow swept across her hand—the dagger gradually expanded, transforming into a blade of pitch-black light.
Her other hand steadied the pitch-black scale with unwavering composure.
"【Goddess of Justice who purifies all corruption, bring destruction and hatred upon wretched existence】"
In Viktor's unhurried and mystical chanting voice—
Her visor-covered face turned, fixing its gaze upon the great dragon before her.
As though delivering the final verdict.
【Divine Scale—Astraea's Divine Judgment】