Chapter 388: I Told You I Wouldn't Let You Die (Part 2)

  It wasn't just the two of them. The air, the sand grains falling in the air, Roland, Lancelot, Sophia, and Talise—all of them were still.

  Although the scenery was still, their spirits could all feel the convergence of the void and the real. The void, like a madman, was trying to devour this dazzling life, while the life struggled desperately to fill, burst, and crush the void. The two were constantly wearing each other down.

  The void and the real—this was no longer a matter of power, but of the two most fundamental attributes of the world. The aftermath produced by their collision and convergence had enveloped everything in the vicinity. All flow could no longer continue.

  However, the inability to flow was only because the gap in power was too great. This was, after all, not the pure void and real from the beginning of the universe's formation, so it was still impossible to truly stop time.

  A blue light flashed, and Moriel's massive body appeared behind Ethan. Only a Holy Crystal Dragon had enough power to break the influence of this aftermath.

  Moriel was absolutely the most powerful being here. In terms of combat strength and power, she was even far above Gru. But she had not made a move all along. Unlike Gru, she understood very well why she had come here. She was here to fight. And no matter how crude and unruly her original temperament, her wisdom, far surpassing that of humans, and her countless combat experiences allowed her to remain completely calm. She had been waiting for the best opportunity to strike. Now, she had undoubtedly found it.

  With a sweep of her massive tail, Ethan's body flew out like a small, straw-stuffed cloth doll. The Lich King, who had seemed to completely ignore any attack until now, was finally struck like an ordinary person.

  As Ethan flew out, a strange cracking sound also rang out, coming simultaneously from within his body and Gru's body, but no one was paying attention to that anymore.

  How much power was there in a full-strength strike from a Holy Crystal Dragon? No one knew. They only knew that just an ordinary Black Dragon, an ordinary Behemoth, could easily tear a steel puppet to pieces. Under this ferocious strike, amidst the crisp sound of the exploding air around him, Ethan's body suddenly disappeared.

  It was not shattered into powder, but his flight this time was so fast that it had already surpassed the limits of what the naked eye could see. Even Roland and Lancelot could not see him. But in less than half a moment, he reappeared in everyone's field of vision, a thousand meters away, along with Moriel.

  In the flashing blue light, Moriel disappeared from the position where she had struck Ethan and appeared a thousand meters away. This was no longer movement. No matter how fast, movement was still just movement, and could not be this silent, traceless, yet more effective than any other kind of movement. This was actually teleportation that could be used at will with just a thought. Before a Holy Crystal Dragon, space and distance had no meaning.

  The instant she appeared, Moriel's claws struck the airborne Ethan. They brought him to a complete stop from his speed that was difficult for the naked eye to follow. Riiip. A clear sound of tearing cloth came from Ethan's body. It was just like when Roland had struck his shoulder earlier, but this sound was much louder. And this was far from over. Moriel's claws had already tightly gripped Ethan's body. The muscles of her body, constructed of blue crystal, suddenly swelled and became ferocious. She was using all her strength to pull him apart.

  Ethan's body was almost completely hidden between the dragon's claws. With such a vast difference in size, he seemed more fragile and insignificant than a single leaf. The ripping sound continued without cease. It was the Robe of the Lich Lord being constantly torn.

  Blue flames surged from the dragon's mouth, rolling and engulfing Moriel's own claws and the Ethan within them. She actually felt that striking and pulling were not enough, and that she had to use every possible method to quickly destroy, tear apart, crush, and melt the enemy in her palm. Her calm waiting earlier seemed to be for the purpose of accumulating all her attacks, her will to fight, her will to kill, only to release them all in one breath at this moment. From the moment she struck to now, it was no more than the blink of an eye, and the situation of the battle seemed to have been completely turned upside down.

  The blue dragon's breath reached the ground. Everything it touched turned to ash and dust. Even Moriel's crystal claws were slowly deforming in the dragon's breath, but she paid it no mind, as if she would not mind spitting out her own heart and liver, and continued to wildly vomit the dragon's breath. The muscles on her arms bulged more and more. The colliding crystal angles on her squeezed against each other and constantly fell away. The Ethan being torn in her claws seemed as if he could at any moment turn into a sky full of fragments with a whoosh.

  Suddenly, a heaven-shaking dragon's cry rang out—a cry of agony. Moriel's left claw suddenly shattered and collapsed. The blue flames in her mouth also stopped because of the scream.

  This was not the effect of the dragon's breath. The shattered dragon's claw did not fall off; it decomposed and dissipated into the void, just like Vedenina's body. It was the work of The Black Star.

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  The blue flames receded, and the Ethan held in her right claw was revealed. He had not yet been torn apart, nor dissolved by the dragon's breath, but he looked close to it. The ancient armor on his body had become strips of tattered cloth hanging from him, and there were also burn marks. Even the Robe of the Lich Lord could not withstand that blue dragon's breath. The most terrifying thing was his own body. Although the expression on his face was still that same emptiness, his body looked like a porcelain doll on the verge of shattering. It was covered in cracks. In some places, the skin and muscle had disappeared, revealing the bone. There was no sign of fresh blood flowing. The exposed bones and flesh were all gray.

  Most importantly, that feeling of ultimate emptiness, of an emptiness that devoured everything, of an emptiness that refused to merge with this world, had lessened. Although the hilt of The Black Star had struck Moriel's left claw, the body of the Holy Crystal Dragon still could not withstand the power of this world-destroying artifact. But only the left claw had shattered. This shattering and dissipation had not spread to the rest of her body.

  The power of The Black Star had indeed become weaker. This darkness, which had seemed unshakable, finally showed signs of dimming. A look of hope appeared in Roland's and Lancelot's eyes. The numbness on Talise's and Sophia's faces was gone, replaced by a bewildered excitement. They did not know whether they should be glad and happy, or afraid.

  Moriel's left claw had collapsed. Ethan reversed the hilt of the sword and stabbed again at the right claw that was gripping him. But he could not hit her, because Moriel had already thrown him away. She threw him towards the ground like an angry little girl throwing a toy. There was no sound. Under Moriel's immense strength, Ethan was driven directly deep into the ground, like a nail into butter, leaving only a small, bottomless pit.

  And this was far from over. The echo of her scream was still in her throat when Moriel's Dragon Language Magic began to be chanted rapidly. A strange orb of light formed between her claws. This orb had no color. It was not white, not black, not gray, but a chaos of countless energies twisted and rotating together. If the two masters of the Tower of Fangs could see this scene, their jaws would drop in astonishment. It was primal magical energy condensed to its limit. It was the most powerful, most fundamental, and most difficult-to-control destructive energy. Legend had it that even Archibald could not use this power.

  With a flick of her claw, this orb of destructive energy flew directly into the pit where Ethan had fallen. She raised her claw again. Immediately, another orb of destruction appeared in her claw. She roared and threw it down again. She raised it again, condensed it again, threw it again. Like a chain of cannon fire, she threw nearly ten of them before she stopped, panting.

  The ground trembled once. It was only at this moment that the first orb of destruction she had thrown seemed to have hit its target.

  This was no ordinary tremor. It made the sand, the bone fragments, the standing Lancelot and the others, and even Moriel herself, sway as if they were on the deck of a ship in a storm. Then, a second tremor immediately made them all jump. It was as if the entire The Wyvern Wastes had jumped.

  BOOM. The third time was no longer a tremor, nor a jump. It was a flight.

  As far as the eye could see, all the desert burst apart. It burst into countless plates of varying sizes. In the fissures of the burst earth, dazzling flashes of energy shot straight into the sky. The slightly smaller plates of the earth's crust were directly sent flying by the energy surging up from below. The larger ones also rose and fell like small boats in a violent storm.

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM... BOOM. In the distance, the obsidian mountains near here were also collapsing. The power of this strike had even reached The Shadowspire Peaks.

  The deafening roar. The heavens had collapsed, the earth had fractured. The sky was cut to pieces by the energy leaking and erupting from the ground. Each of the falling, colliding plates of the earth's crust was as massive as a mountain. They fell, shattered on the broken ground, and were thrown into the air again. From deep within the earth, dark red magma surged up, splashing and falling like rain.

  It was as if the end of the world had come in an instant. Any Forbidden Spell, in comparison to this power, was as gentle as a spring breeze.

  After a long time, this apocalyptic scene finally slowly calmed down. No more energy shot out from the ground. The ground also became quiet. But this was no longer a desert. Much of the ground had been completely turned over, revealing the rock layers below. All the sand had melted and re-condensed into strangely shaped crystalline surfaces that jutted out everywhere. There was flowing magma everywhere. In the heat wave, hot enough to roast a person, was the smell of sulfur, just like the legendary hell.

  The place where Moriel stood had become a raised mountain. The place where Ethan had fallen before her was now a volcanic crater spewing lava, with gurgling magma bubbling. The blue light around her began to dim. The crystals on her body were gradually falling off, and even a blue liquid was slowly flowing from her mouth and nose.

  "In the end, it was I who won... Archibald, did you see that, you little brat?" She was laughing. The blue blood flowed even more. From the broken claw and from her mouth and nose, it flowed down her head like little streams, dripping onto the lava ground, sizzling and evaporating into waves of a fishy stench. The crystal-like muscles fell off her piece by piece.

  Transforming into a Holy Crystal Dragon was a top-tier secret art that came at the cost of consuming her lifespan. And her frantic attack had even exceeded what the body of the Crystal Dragon could bear. Even during the attack on the previous Lich King ten thousand years ago, she had never used such power.

  But she had no regrets. She had finally defeated this Lich King who was supposed to destroy the world. It was not as simple as breaking the sword, but truly defeating the Lich King who had picked up the hilt and become one with it. The aura from deep underground was now so weak it was almost imperceptible. Even if it was not yet completely destroyed, it was not far from it. All that was needed was to find him and step on him.

  "Who asked you to meddle?" At the foot of the volcano, Gru roared at Moriel.

  His body was covered in wounds, and it seemed that even standing was a great effort. But these wounds were not caused by the world-turning upheaval from just now. They were the reason why Moriel had suddenly sent Ethan flying.

  The two forces that had been in a stalemate had suddenly lost their balance. The result was the collapse and backlash of the power. This was true for both him and for Ethan. Especially the fist with which he had struck out—it had completely split open.

  "Stop trying to be a hero, kid. You didn't attack the Lich King, but used your own power to clash head-on with The Black Star, its strongest point? Are you still thinking of saving that guy?" Moriel shook her head fiercely. Even though she was weak, her aura was still as ferocious and indisputable as ever. "Even though your power attribute seems to be a direct counter to the The Black Star he's holding, do you think you can neutralize the countless darkness and souls focused within by yourself? If I hadn't made a move, your end would have been no different from that Lich's."

  In the distance, Roland slowly walked towards them. Lancelot, Talise, and Sophia also ran over. Although it had been very dangerous, Lancelot still had the ability to protect the two of them.

  "That guy still has one last breath left. Find him and finish him." Moriel said to them condescendingly. "Don't worry, he's very weak now. Even the likes of you should be able to handle him..."

  The sky seemed to darken. Suddenly, she froze, then whipped around. In the direction of The Shadowspire Peaks, an endless, boundless darkness was rapidly spreading towards here.

  In the blink of an eye, this darkness had already arrived overhead. Everyone could see that the very front point of this darkness was also its blackest point. A section of a blade, cutting open the sky, cutting open all light, cutting open all hope, flew down towards here.

  On the other side, from a massive fissure, a figure of nothingness was slowly walking up. Treading on the rolling lava beneath its feet, its steps were still those of emptiness, its gaze still void.