Chapter 627: Standoff and Melee
"No—"
The ancient gold dragon beat his wings fiercely, swinging the scepter in his claws and letting out a mournful roar: "Vile dragon! You actually killed Duke Walter just like that, killed someone who stood for kindness and justice! Heroes are never forgotten, and a tyrant like you will be marked on the pillar of shame in history!"
The end of his golden scepter fired a dazzling rainbow beam, nearly a meter in diameter, mixing various elemental powers, shooting straight at the distant red dragon.
"Boom!"
Cassius extended his right claw, conjuring a vortex of spells, effortlessly absorbing all the energy of the rainbow beam. He even sneered, "He tried to kill me, so I killed him. Isn't that real fairness?
You so-called just hypocrites can gang up on me, the 'tyrant,' but I can't fight back? You want both glory and your life—where in the world does it work that way?" The red dragon calmly countered, a mocking light in his pale gold eyes.
"Besides, he came here to die on his own. He even unsealed his divine core himself, I didn't force him." The red dragon picked up the pulsing golden orb in his claw, greedily studying it.
Then, he actually tore off a piece of the solar divine power and swallowed it. The chaotic flames within him broke down that energy, while the fires of order recombined it as Cassius's own strength.
The red dragon's massive body worked in perfect harmony, forming a systematic, powerful digestive system capable of absorbing divine power.
Surging, blazing solar energy flooded the red dragon's belly, filling his body, making him let out a satisfied, contented sigh. Cassius even closed his eyes, as if savoring the taste of this power.
But in Walter's allies' eyes, this was nothing short of devouring their fallen comrade's corpse in front of them—a naked humiliation!
"You… you'll pay for this!" The ancient gold dragon's voice trembled with grief and rage.
"Sinner."
Barachiel's expression turned solemn as well. For the first time, the perfect silver face of the Silver Lord of Heaven showed an emotion called "sorrow."
"In Heaven's name, I'll give you the final judgment, so the fallen hero can rest in peace.
Remember, the battle is not over! There may be sacrifices on the road of light, but justice and order will triumph in the end!"
Barachiel's eyes hardened. His silver longsword erupted with lightning, releasing blades of starlight. His hundreds-of-meters-tall divine form appeared, with countless massive halos spinning behind him.
The gold dragon flapped his wings and soared into the air, roaring: "Duke Walter only died because he was deceived by this cunning red dragon! Against this kind of foe, there's no need to follow any rules!
Lord Barachiel, this time let's attack together. Don't give this shameless villain a single chance!"
Cassius also beat his wings, instantly climbing a thousand meters, and laughed wildly: "Finally can't keep up the act, huh?
Hahaha, good! Let all of Faenso see your hypocritical faces—let's pave the empire's road to the future!"
"Boom!"
Thunder rumbled across the sky. Barachiel didn't respond, instead answering with a sky full of heavenly lightning, then slashed with his starlit sword.
But the red dragon dodged with a twist, opening his jaws to spew dragonfire, turning half the sky into a sea of flames and smoke.
Under the Elemental Master's subtle control, Cassius's dragonfire could even burn away the clouds and devour Barachiel's heavenly lightning.
Two fundamentally different elemental powers clashed and merged, forming churning, colorful clouds—sometimes fire raged, sometimes thunder crashed.
"Sword of the Subspace!"
Barachiel roared, sending countless golden swords of heavenly power flying at the red dragon, slashing even the space in their path.
"Roar—" Cassius opened his jaws and spat a torrent of dark red dragonfire, forming a firewall that consumed all the light swords.
Barachiel scanned around with truesight, but didn't spot the red dragon—unaware that, overhead, flames were rapidly forming a dragon shape.
"Above you!" Titus cried anxiously, flapping his wings as if to rescue Barachiel. But the red dragon just sneered, pointed his claw, and a pillar of fire sent the gold dragon tumbling.
Cassius then dived from the sky at breakneck speed, gathering blazing fire in his mouth, about to pierce Barachiel's holy form from above.
Barachiel suddenly folded his wings, raised his sword overhead, and gathered heavenly power into a silver shield a hundred meters wide.
[Heavenly Aegis]
"Boom—"
Dragonfire poured from Cassius's mouth, but was blocked by the silver shield, unable to advance further.
As Barachiel slashed, his starlit blade swept down with terrifying force, as if to cleave the red dragon in two.
"Aaargh—"
Cassius could only howl, beating his wings, twisting around and hiding behind his fire.
Wounds now covered the red dragon's body, but they healed visibly fast.
Barachiel too looked battered. His huge white-feathered wings were tattered and scorched, his starlit violet robe torn and ripped.
But heaven's radiance bathed his body, rapidly healing all wounds and flaws—within minutes, he would be as good as new.
The most wretched was ancient gold dragon Titus. His once-lustrous scales were now dull, scorched, and bloody. His wings hung like rags, his body a mass of wounds.
A terrifying gash marred his flank, exposing crimson flesh, blood gushing—that was a fresh wound from the red dragon's claws.
The once-noble gold dragon now looked more like a blood-soaked "black dragon," yet still he roared in fury, bravely lunging at the red dragon.
By now, the sky battlefield was utter chaos—mighty spells crisscrossed, dazzling the eyes.
The surrounding weave of magic was nearly torn apart by the violence, and the fabric of this material plane grew dangerously fragile.
Even high-level spells—even eighth- and ninth-tier magics—were flung like they cost nothing, just to slow an enemy, and often failed to work at all.
Amid it all, massive figures fought and vanished, only glimpses of wings or claws showing.
On the ground, archmage Zalan slowly opened his eyes to the urgent calls and constant healing magic from his aides—only to see the chaos in the sky.
Churning clouds blocked the heights, pulsing with terrifying power, and those mighty beings fought within, each clash a disaster.
Zalan's lips turned white. He muttered, "Gods, is this battle still not over? Do they mean to destroy the sky itself?"
Suddenly he remembered something, his face froze, tone urgent: "Right! What about the tenth-tier spell?"
He got up, shaking his aide, asking excitedly: "What about that miraculous sun in the sky? Where did it go? Was I just seeing things? Impossible—I saw it with my own eyes, how could it…"
The mage fell silent, face pale, and shook his head: "No, sir, you didn't imagine it. But… that sun—or Duke Walter—is gone."
He pointed into the distance, and Zalan followed, jaw dropping.
There, a divine-blooded angel lay with his chest split open, golden-red blood flowing.
His body still glowed fiercely, burning a huge blackened crater into the ground. No one dared approach—that was Duke Walter's corpse, plain as day.
For a long moment, Zalan could only croak: "This… this can't be…"
"Help!"
"Lord Zalan's fainted again!"
"Where's the priest—hurry! Lord Zalan's foaming at the mouth! Wait, there's blood from his nose! By Mystra!"
The crowd fell into chaos again, while more people stared at the sky and prayed.
In the face of such world-ending power, it seemed they could only wait for fate to be decided.
"Boom!"
Cassius manipulated furious fire elementals, forming a hundred-meter-long flaming claw to seize the starlit blade.
Wild tongues of fire raced up the sword, fiercely burning the heavenly light-forged arm.
The red dragon spat a puff of sulfurous smoke and taunted, "Barachiel, mighty lord of Lucia—this is all you've got?"
Barachiel gripped his sword and replied coldly, "Foolish dragon! In the Silver Heaven, your head would already be decorating Malhewic Fortress!"
"Roar—"
At that moment, the gold dragon attacked from behind, wounds ignored, claws and fangs bared.
Cassius didn't even look—he simply lashed his tail, swatting the much smaller gold dragon away, opening another wound on his chest.
"Pathetic ambush!"
Cassius flapped his wings, whipping up burning winds, instantly pulling away, coming to a standoff a few thousand meters off, facing Barachiel and the gold dragon.
He looked with satisfaction at the battered gold dragon.
Good—he wanted to use this fight to craft his "anti-red dragon vanguard" persona for his alter ego, boosting Titus's standing among the anti-red dragon factions.
With the "Dragon of Dawn" and "Wings of the Morning" reputations already glorious, now he'd add a "risked everything to fight the red dragon, avenged a friend" legend.
Cassius was sure, with these deeds, he could infiltrate the righteous forces, win their trust, and climb to the top.
"Soon… today's show will be finished." Cassius grinned grimly at the thought.
The red dragon looked to Barachiel again. In just a few minutes, the heavenly light had restored his perfect body, leaving him undiminished.
For Cassius, this really was a troublesome foe.
As lord of Silver Heaven Lucia and a member of Heaven's Seven, Barachiel's power came from the mountain—more precisely, from Silver Heaven itself.
Although an outer plane's power is suppressed in the material world, Barachiel never used more than the limit, storing it as halos behind him, releasing them when needed.
And as long as Silver Heaven's strength didn't dry up, as long as the Silver Sea remained, Barachiel's power was endless.
No wonder Barachiel was so proud, so confident in backing Duke Walter. To creatures of the material world, he was all but invincible.
Cassius's ancient dragon body did give him immense regeneration, but matching an entire outer plane in a war of attrition was pure stupidity—something only a native red dragon, all muscle and magma, would attempt.
Cassius knew he'd need to seize the right moment for a killing blow. If he got stuck in a war of attrition, he'd be the first to die.
Easier said than done—dealing Barachiel a fatal wound would be extremely difficult.
That heavenly light sickened Cassius. Its magic was smoothed by the power of order—even chaos flames barely wore it down, and any wound healed almost instantly.
As the plane of order and justice, Heaven Mountain was born to restrain all chaos, especially abyssal demons.
But Cassius hadn't revealed all his cards. The enemy only knew he wielded chaos, legendary sorcery, and ancient dragon bloodline.
After so many world-shaking battles, these were half-public secrets among the elites.
But no one knew Cassius had also gained another power from the system after killing demons—Order Breath.
Order and chaos, justice and evil—opposites, like water and fire. No one would imagine such powers in one being.
"Maybe… it's time to end this." Cassius looked down from above at Barachiel, thinking this.