Chapter 95 - The Last True Dragon

Her body released its escaping light and a powerful explosion of pure mana followed. The ground under her feet broke up into chunks and then within a split second crumbled into dust.

This reaction flowed throughout the room in the movement of the wave of mana that burst from her body. Everything it touched was destroyed, immediately.

Akai’s vision was filled with white and then…blank.

His ears rang with a sharp stinging sound that refused to rest. He opened his eyes but was unable to see anything besides white—a blank slate left behind from the explosion. He felt blind, unable to know where up or down was.

It wasn’t long before he wondered the big question.

“Am I…dead?” He muttered to himself.

“…Kai…Akai!” A voice grew louder.

Slowly the ringing that plagued his ears dropped into silence and the frantic voice of a man hovered over him.

The blank white vision he had been left with crumbled slowly and returned the colour to his eyes.

“I’m…not dead? What just happened, I thought she exploded?” Akai questioned as he touched his face.

“She did,” Edward answered.

Akai turned to him and saw Edward's shield covering them both, as well as Arga. Steam rose from its surface and the rest of the room had been left in wreckage.

The stone walls were in the process of repairing themselves, even without Ilinore there. They had a lot of work in front of them…nearly everything around them was brought to pebbles and blown out stone.

“Brother, are you okay?!” Zephier pushed passed Arga and ran to his brother’s side.

The worried expression he hung over Akai brought a smile to his face. Seeing his brother's grin, Zephier quickly realised what he had just said and returned to his arrogant demeanour. He cleared his throat and turned his gaze off to the side.

“Ahem—I mean, you sure are dumb aren’t you Aki? You went to fight her all on your own and nearly died, that’s pretty lame…” He forced out with a blushing face.

Akai’s grin remained. “I suppose so, I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“I wasn’t worried!” Zephier retorted.

“Still, it is thanks to Edward that we all survived that unharmed. Thank you, it seems we keep having to rely on you.” Akai turned to Edward.

“Not at all. We’re in this together, both of us have someone we need to rescue still.”

Arga wandered off from their conversation and followed the glimmer beneath the rubble that caught her eye. A strange glimpse of light shone from under all that rubble, it would have had to be something pretty bright to do that.

Arga buried her hands under the moving stones and felt around for it.

The stones were in constant motion, they floated to wherever they needed to be to repair the room.

Her eyes jolted open. “…!”

Edward turned to Arga once he noticed that she strayed away from the group. To his surprise she looked to be hard at work, he just didn’t know what for. As he worked up to asking her, she beat him to it and burst out with excitement.

“WOAHHHHHH!!!!”

Everyone flinched towards her and watched as she raised her arm and revealed something in her hand. It was a strange object unlike any other from Istoria with a gem at its centre.

Their eyes all widened as they saw it and turned ghostly as they saw its glow.

“Look what I found!!!”

***

I was beyond tired, it felt as though all the wind in my system had been knocked out. I took in heavy breaths and had to force them out with even larger sighs.

My throat burnt every time I breathed as if a flame had been forced through my mouth and down into my stomach.

“This is seriously…impossible.” I groaned.

The room around us had countless holes in it, all of which hadn’t been repaired until that moment.

My eyes gravitated to the large wreckage of broken-up stone and the massive crater in the wall beside me that filled up.

It’s repairing itself again! What the hell—why now?

I spaced out for a second but my attention was quickly brought back to the present when he moved.

A black boot emerged from the smoke and two gleaming eyes pierced through its shroud. It brought me to a shaken state where none of my nerves would settle down.

It was barely a fight, I hadn’t managed to land a single bit of damage on him through any of it. He was beyond me, I couldn't hurt him.

Me on the other hand…

{HP: 14/80}

My health dropped to a dangerous amount just from the graze of his last attack. I managed to dodge the rest but I felt close to dying just from that…

I looked down at my arm, it was covered in a large black burn. The skin was closed up but it was seriously in bad shape. I could barely lift my left arm without it burning like hell. Without my cloak, I took that damage directly and that was how badly I took it…

“Without my armour, I would have died, no question about it., I muttered as I looked down at the remainder of my gear.

My armour was pretty much in shambles, most of the armour had been cracked or broken. The section that covered my arm was gone and it had caught a large portion of the part that hung around my back too.

Safe to say, the effects of the Barhemoth Armour were no longer available to me.

If I got hit once more…I just prayed to the Goddess that I wouldn’t get hit again.

I’ve tried everything, but nothing affects this guy! My physical stats aren’t high enough to hurt him and I don’t have many strong long-range skills…I only have one more that I can try on him. Would it work though?

“Is there any point in fighting me? Can’t you see the good I am doing, surely you can understand the need to fight for those you care about?”

He had been spouting nonsense like that for a while, I mostly drowned it all out while fighting for my life but it seemed like an appropriate time to listen. If I could stall him, even for a minute then maybe I could save them.

I looked back at Alice and Veldor, they were huddled together at the end of the room. A large wave of black flames kept them trapped in the room along with me.

He could have easily killed us sooner, I didn’t understand why he hadn’t. Why keep us alive, why humour me with our little fight?

“You keep saying you’re this strong hero—a chosen one—but what kind of saviour hurts the one he’s meant to protect?” I asked while gesturing back to Alice.

“Protect? I never said anything about protecting that girl, not once!” His voice rose in anger and once he finished his response, it dropped back.

“So then what, she’s just one of the few that need to die? What for?”

“Her death will save the dragons, before they kill themselves. Yes, I am the saviour. The saviour of strong, the last true dragon!”