Dragon Wings spread wide behind Naohara, and his speed surged in an instant.
He shot into the sky, body angled forward, as the [Dragon Destruction Sword] traced a smooth arc through the air. The blade came down toward the Platinum Dragon Lord's massive body, as if intent on cutting it clean in half.
It all happened in less than a heartbeat. Any ordinary race would have failed to react.
But the Dragon Race surpassed others in both perception and reflexes.
Sensing danger, the Platinum Dragon Lord did not attempt to dodge. Instead, it activated a defensive spell.
[Wild Magic: Holy Dragon Protection]
A barrier layered with illusory dragon scales appeared before it, blocking Naohara's path.
This was the strongest defensive Wild Magic the Platinum Dragon Lord possessed. It had absolute confidence in its durability.
Yet the moment the blade touched the barrier, something unbelievable happened.
"Crack!"
Under the Platinum Dragon Lord's shocked gaze, the barrier that could withstand high-tier Wild Magic shattered like fragile glass the instant it met the sword, exploding into countless fragments.
The blade broke through the defense and filled its vision. Panic flashed across the Platinum Dragon Lord's face. Instinctively, it raised a dragon claw to block.
"Slash!"
The sound of flesh being cut rang out as Dragon Blood sprayed through the air. Intense pain tore through its nerves, forcing a roar from its throat.
Enduring the agony, it swung its other claw and barely managed to knock Naohara away.
"That weapon… something's wrong with it…"
Dragon Blood dripped steadily to the ground. Staring at the wound on its claw, the Platinum Dragon Lord's expression turned grim.
Just a little more. If it had hesitated even slightly before counterattacking, that claw would have been severed entirely.
It tried to close the wound, but it was useless. A strange magic lingered at the cut, constantly preventing the flesh from regenerating.
"It's pointless. Wounds caused by the [Dragon Destruction Sword] can't be healed."
Naohara's voice drifted from midair. He lifted the blade before him and licked the Dragon Blood from its surface.
"This is it. Hahaha!"
"Perfect. It's absolutely perfect."
As the Dragon Blood entered his body, he felt the change immediately. The sensation sent him into uncontrollable laughter. This was the feeling. The one that drove him insane.
"Dragon Blood!"
"More. I want more Dragon Blood!"
His eyes glowed red as he stared at the Platinum Dragon Lord with naked madness. A terrifying Dragon Aura burst forth without restraint, crashing down on his opponent.
The bloodlust and frenzy in that gaze made the Platinum Dragon Lord shudder.
"That look…"
Its expression darkened as it watched the Dragonoid who had fallen into madness. It knew that gaze well.
It was the look of someone staring at food.
Mad.
This world had gone mad.
The Platinum Dragon Lord could hardly believe what it was experiencing. It was a True Dragon Lord, a being standing at the pinnacle of the world, and yet now it was being looked at as prey.
"Damn Player! I am the Platinum Dragon Lord!"
With a furious roar, a shockwave powerful enough to distort space erupted outward, forcibly cutting off Naohara's laughter.
[Wild Magic: Holy Spirit Light]
Warm radiance enveloped the Platinum Dragon Lord. Its shattered scales and torn flesh began to recover at visible speed.
Provoked by Naohara's gaze, it ignored the cost to its soul and activated Wild Magic without hesitation.
Under the high-tier healing spell [Holy Spirit Light], the strange magic clinging to its claw was purified. In an instant, the Platinum Dragon Lord's presence returned to its peak.
[Wild Magic: Dragon's Wrath!]
A brilliant magic array unfolded, shining with dazzling light.
Power surged within it like the fury of a god, gathering and compressing at the center.
The Platinum Dragon Lord had abandoned any thought of negotiation.
Now it had only one intention.
Kill him.
A sphere formed before it, radiating destructive force as though it would annihilate everything in its path. The surrounding air trembled violently under the pressure of the magic, and a terrifying aura swept across both land and sky.
"It can actually recover? So this is the power of Wild Magic?"
Naohara stared at the Platinum Dragon Lord, now restored as if nothing had happened, and let out a delighted laugh.
"Haha! Come on, then. Let's tear into each other!"
To erase the effect of the [Dragon Destruction Sword], a Divine-class Item already at the very peak, truly lived up to Wild Magic's reputation as a force meant to rival World-Class Items.
But Naohara didn't dwell on it. A flash of madness flickered in his eyes as he raised the [Dragon Destruction Sword] and slashed hard across his own arm.
In an instant, vivid red Dragon Blood sprayed out and soaked the blade. The moment it sensed the blood, the [Dragon Destruction Sword] drank it greedily.
[Divine-class Item Unleashed!]
The moment Naohara's words left his mouth, the world seemed to fall silent. Then a horrifying presence spread outward.
A keening wail rose from faint to deafening, echoing across heaven and earth. The [Dragon Destruction Sword] trembled, not from fear, but from exhilaration.
For a split second, a vision flickered through the mind: mountains of corpses, seas of blood, and a sword planted quietly among countless dragon carcasses.
"This feeling… you bastard!"
The Platinum Dragon Lord froze mid-charge. Then a surge of rage slammed into its mind, sending it spiraling into madness.
No wonder that sword had felt wrong, as though it carried an overwhelming restraint against dragons. It had never imagined the truth would be like this.
Dragons. Tens of thousands of them.
A dragon-slaying sword, a weapon piled together from the flesh, blood, and lives of innumerable great dragons. A weapon that should never have existed.
The Platinum Dragon Lord could sense it clearly. The lamentations of countless dragons swirled around its ears, so vivid it felt their grief as its own.
"My kin…"
A glimmer of tears flashed in its eyes. Even it could not stop the sorrow. Dragons were proud. They should not have ended like this. They should not have died like this.
"Today, even if I burn my soul dry, I will kill you!"
All hesitation vanished from the Platinum Dragon Lord. It began consuming its soul without restraint, forcing more and more power into its Wild Magic.
In an instant, a blazing sphere of light swelled until it blotted out the sky. The pressure of that magic felt as though it could tear heaven and earth apart.
With soul poured into it so recklessly, the spell had already reached the point where it could rewrite the map itself.
"Terrifying. But if you want to kill me, then come and try."
Sensing that the Platinum Dragon Lord had gone all in, Naohara's expression sharpened as well.
Catastrophe Dragonoid: [Descent of the Catastrophe God]
Dragon Magic Caster: [Perfect Fusion Magic]
Sword Saint: [Sword Dance]
Dragon Lord: [Dragon Dance]
In the blink of an eye, Naohara stacked several powerful buffs. He had run through this sequence countless times back in the game. Next came one of his strongest moves, short of self-destruction.
[Descent of the Catastrophe God] was a special skill of the [Catastrophe Dragonoid], granting a unique buff that added a Catastrophe attribute to the next attack.
(If you don't know what the Catastrophe attribute is, look up the [World Disaster] class.)
[Perfect Fusion Magic] was a special skill of the [Dragon Magic Caster], allowing two different types of magic to overlap and be released as a single spell.
As for [Sword Dance] and [Dragon Dance], they greatly boosted a Player's physical and magical attack power.
Holding the awakened [Dragon Destruction Sword] aloft, Naohara began to invoke his magic.
Physical Triplet Maximize Magic: [Slash]
Magical Triplet Maximize Magic: [Reality Slash]
Perfect Fusion Magic Activated: [Slash] + [Reality Slash] = [Pseudo-Dimensional Slash]
[Pseudo-Dimensional Slash] + [Catastrophe Attribute] = [Catastrophe. Dimensional Slash]
A complex magic array wrapped around the [Dragon Destruction Sword]. Black light seeped from it, and the air around the blade filled with countless fine cracks as space itself twisted and splintered.
[Catastrophe. Dimensional Slash]
This was a special skill Naohara developed by imitating Touch Me's [Dimensional Slash] and combining it with Ulbert's [Catastrophe Magic].
Its power was monstrous, one of his trump cards.
"Die!"
As if the world itself were reaching the end, both Naohara and the Platinum Dragon Lord launched their attacks at the same time.
One side was Wild Magic fueled by a burning Dragon Soul, a force meant to erase everything.
The other was a chained technique carrying a world-level curse, meant to cut through anything.
They collided.
In that instant, a thunderous roar tore through the sky. The heavens seemed to collapse, the earth cracked apart, space warped violently, and a catastrophic flood of energy surged outward, annihilating everything in its path.
Just then, a massive scroll unfurled from the void, wrapping the entire area and blocking the world-ending torrent.
Not far away, Momonga and the others appeared, staring in stunned silence at the scene.
"How did this turn into an apocalypse halfway through the fight?"
Watching the World-Class Item [Depiction of Nature and Society] activate, Momonga and Herohero exchanged a look, both utterly speechless.