At that majestic scene of destruction, the fighting on the battlefield came to a halt for a moment.
“Crazy….”
“Hah!”
Within the whirling dust, the majority of the crowd stared blankly at the massive mushroom cloud covering the city.
It was only natural, as it was the first time any of them had seen such a sight in their lives.
In this world, the technology for handling gunpowder was exceedingly crude, and causing such a massive explosion with it was nearly impossible.
Let alone that it was caused solely by the energy emitted from a single living being.
‘…So this is the dragon of legend, huh? The power to annihilate a city. It’s absurd.’
Grand General Jeongcheon, a master of the Profound Realm who had participated in this operation as a member of the Northern Army—the military’s greatest force controlling Shanxi, Shaanxi, and parts of Gansu—narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue.
Since his base was close to Beijing, he was well aware of the importance of this matter, and he had joined the battle at the request of the prince he served. Yet he held absolute confidence and pride in his own abilities.
His martial power, honed through countless real battles and wars, was beyond question.
‘But that… there’s no chance. If that were to fall in the middle of an army.’
He glanced at the crescent moon blade in his hand and twitched his eyebrows.
It was said that a transcendent master who had ascended to the Profound Realm was an army unto himself, but most of that ability stemmed from single combat.
Launching an attack that could truly annihilate an entire legion like that was something he had never dared imagine.
‘If I slash it head-on… who knows. As long as I don’t take a direct hit, I should be able to withstand the aftermath with protective astral qi.’
The problem was that in such a case, the safety of the army accompanying him couldn’t be guaranteed.
And taking an attack so concentrated with brute force head-on instead of dodging was simply idiotic.
Focusing his vision, he looked toward Beijing where the dust was slowly beginning to settle and let out a low groan.
“Hmm.”
The first thing visible was the massive scar left upon the earth.
Where the destructive beam had swept through, not only had a massive crater been hollowed out, but everything on its cross-section had melted smooth and was reflecting light.
‘Truly a calamity.’
Before such an attack, human wave tactics and siege warfare clinging to a castle were meaningless.
Since the opponent could fly freely through the sky, there were only so many means of attack available.
And the dragons who could see every scene clearly from the best seats in the sky above felt the same sentiment.
[Huh.]
[That…]
Exclamations burst from their lips unconsciously.
It was an attack of such power that even they, who had lived for eons, were seeing for the first time.
It would be easier to instead summon thunderstorms and gales in a region or cause earthquakes; such purely overwhelming destructive power felt rather alien.
[Wow, what in the world is that?]
At that, the Black Dragon, who had been listless ever since arriving here, expressed admiration and began to show active interest.
She was much younger than herself and merely a temporary stand-in, not even a true Yellow Dragon, so she hadn’t expected much. But she was deeply impressed by the sight of annihilating the insect-like humans swarming below and some of the yao jiangshi.
‘What a spectacular attack! If only we could fire that at every human nest of a city…’
What fireworks could be more brilliant than that!
Her gleaming gaze turned toward Horus, who was leisurely circling the skies above the battlefield once before returning.
Thus, the gazes of the humans and yao standing on the ground and the dragons in the sky all focused on a single being.
It was the moment the overwhelming majesty of the strangely formed Yellow Dragon was etched clearly into everyone’s memory.
***
Flap
— Flap —
‘Ouch, did I overdo it trying to make an impressive display?’
His wingbeats, which were normally effortless, felt heavy.
With eyes focused on him from all directions, he concealed it as best he could, but Horus was currently in quite poor condition.
That breath of terrifying power that had obliterated most of a major city in a single blast.
It was an attack on the level of what an Ancient Dragon—a true Ancient Dragon, not a Sacred Dragon or an Old Dragon—would use.
Naturally, it put an enormous burden on his body!
‘Though thanks to that, I’ve certainly made an impression.’
Fighting personally down there, trading blows, would have been unsightly anyway.
Rather than that, it was better to make one big score and withdraw gracefully.
The problem was that by overexerting himself to the point of using “Limit Break,” maintaining his adult form with the “Heart of the Elder Dragon” was growing increasingly difficult.
Separate from his abilities, his true body was still merely a hatchling.
‘Still, it’s not bad. Above all, I discovered a possibility this time, too.’
His physical growth, which unlike his rapidly growing martial power had no answer but to age.
He had just glimpsed the solution to that chronic problem he had been forced to accept as unavoidable.
‘Though that may require a bit of time. Ah, but more importantly, I should finish that side first.’
Horus’s gaze turned to the battlefield below, specifically toward where the demonic cultists were concentrated.
No matter how bloodless and tearless the demonic cultists were, their rear had been entirely blown away by such an attack; they couldn’t possibly be free of chaos.
If not for the jiangshi, who moved only according to orders without emotion, they would have already collapsed helplessly.
‘Well, that’s in its final stages too. Shall I slowly wrap things up?’
He had shown enough by now.
The catastrophic damage dealt to the demonic cultists would instill a sufficient sense of crisis and vigilance in the beings of this world, and the resentment would become the medium that binds them together.
It was a bit of a waste that high-level undead including yao jiangshi were consumed in the process, but they weren’t Awakened anyway, so they were nothing more than useless appendages that could only be used in this world.
Rather than keeping them indefinitely with no clear future, it was better to spectacularly burn through and discard them in this opportunity that could provide maximum impact.
‘Things you try to save just turn to shit anyway. Unlike Auterika, I need to focus more on restoring a world that’s already collapsed. And alternatives are plentiful if needed.’
He had already acquired all related technologies, and the remnants of the demonic cult who would be used for periodic vigilance-refreshing were leashed at their main base in Tianshan.
All that remained was the work of rebuilding the Dragon Heart.
“The Heavenly Demon descends, all demons submit!”
“Die!”
“Kgh! O Heavenly Demon!”
About half a day since the battle began.
The end of the war that would decide the fate of this world was approaching.
***
“Puhuhu—in the end, it came to this. What a pity, what a pity.”
Yeomuncheol, the Ghost Sword Demon Lord and Law Protector of the Heavenly Demon Cult, let out a low laugh.
At that, his opponent facing him, Sword Saint Nangong Wu, opened his mouth with a stiff expression.
“This is the end, Yeomuncheol.”
“Kurgh—!”
With both arms severed and a sword pierced through his heart, blackened blood poured from the Ghost Sword Demon Lord’s mouth.
Even as blood dripped steadily from his lips, the sneer on his one-eyed aged face did not vanish.
“Hehehe… To think I’d end up like this because of such a thundering brute. If we had fought properly, the result would have been different, Nangong Wu.”
“You talk too much for one defeated on the battlefield. If you were going to say such things, shouldn’t you have stayed cooped up in a training hall?”
The fight between the two, which had been closely contested until now, had been neck and neck.
Given the situation, the outcome between them could not help but be greatly influenced by the changing surroundings.
“Then I shall go help elsewhere, Elder.”
That decisive variable.
A young… no, a youth who seemed merely a boy, wrapped in astral qi shaped like a dragon, lightly bowed his head and immediately shot away.
A movement as majestic as a dragon playing among the clouds.
The Ghost Sword Demon Lord glanced at that sight from the corner of his eye, the corner of his mouth twitching as his body shook.
“Puhkuk—to think a mere blood pup like that cut off one of this Ghost Sword Demon Lord’s arms! Transformation Realm in his early twenties? Heaven has truly set its mind on this one.”
The Sword Saint agreed with those words.
He had thought his grandson, who had reached the Peak in his mid-twenties, was a genius, but that man far surpassed even his imagination!
At their first meeting at Shaolin Temple, he had been at the Peak; during the demonic cult’s raid, he had been at the Transcendent Peak; and now, reunited after a long time, he was at the Transformation Realm.
No matter that he was an otherworlder, such a growth speed was simply unbelievable.
At this point, one could say Heaven was determined to push him forward.
‘The next World’s Greatest is virtually decided already.’
The Sword Saint’s gaze followed after the youth.
The astral qi shaped like a dragon shone with iridescent light as it tore through the battlefield.
At that spectacular yet overwhelming sight, the eyes of others naturally converged on where he was.
An attracting force that drew everyone in.
He possessed some inexplicable quality, not merely martial talent.
‘A young hero appearing in turbulent times, eh.’
Simply infiltrating the enemy camp alone and rescuing the children of the dragon was already merit enough.
If not for him, the demonic cult’s ritual might have been completed during the war and caused some unforeseeable variable. Even if they won there, all the sacrifices would have been killed, leaving no hope remaining in this land.
Yet there he was on the front lines, taking the lead in helping martial artists who had fallen into crisis…
“Hmm, now that I think of it, Soran seemed quite interested in him.”
With a serious expression, he stroked his beard and fell into thought.
Not because she was his granddaughter, but Namgung Soran’s beauty was such that she was called the greatest in Anhui.
Naturally, as the ladies who married into the Nangong family—a prestigious orthodox clan—were hardly lacking in beauty.
Were not the Sword Saint’s own mother, wife, and daughter-in-law all women of peerless beauty?
The only concern was that he was an otherworlder who might return to his homeland at any time.
‘Home is where you settle down anyway. Even if he settles in this world, his achieved realm won’t decline.’
He also had no family here, so they could naturally welcome him as a live-in son-in-law.
And the child named Jegal Hyemi, who seemed to be a formidable rival…
He paused at that thought and shook his head.
No matter what, rejoicing in another’s misfortune was quite distasteful.
“The sound of you scheming reaches all the way here… kgh!”
Shhhk—!
“I had forgotten about you for a moment.”
Startled from his thoughts by the Ghost Sword Demon Lord’s voice, the Sword Saint immediately pulled the sword from his heart and severed his neck.
As a master of the Profound Realm who had learned sinister demonic arts, it seemed he wouldn’t die easily from a mere stab to the heart.
To be certain, he blew apart the brain with astral qi and thoroughly destroyed the heart and dantian.
“…….”
The moment he put an end to their long-standing enmity.
The Sword Saint closed his eyes for a moment, lost in sentiment, but soon opened them again and shot off elsewhere.
‘Now is not the time for this.’
The place where the fiercest battle on this battlefield was unfolding.
Toward the place where the final decisive battle with the Heavenly Demon was taking place.
***
The tide of the battlefield began to tip drastically.
The harsh environment of the demonic realm was suppressed by the power of the Five Dragons, and the inferiority in strength was resolved thanks to the valiant yao who joined the war.
Thanks to that, those who could catch their breath gained the leeway to help others beside them, and it snowballed, affecting the battles between the strongest fighters on both sides.
The Ghost Sword Demon Lord perished by the Sword Saint’s hand, and the Blood Demon Jiangshi was destroyed by the Heaven-Severing Saber Emperor.
The battles between Transformation Realm experts no longer needed the Asura Blood Lord’s help, and the highest-tier yao jiangshi, including the qilin, fell one by one under the combined assault of numerous yao and martial artists.
And now that military force was being projected onto a single person.
None other than the final boss of this stage, the Heavenly Demon.
Boom—!
Rumble—
At the center of the battlefield.
A world-shaking battle was unfolding with deafening roars.
A one-against-many battle was unfolding against a figure shrouded in pitch-black energy.
But the many could not easily seize the advantage.
“…Amitabha, I had my suspicions. It seems the Venerable Heavenly Demon has abandoned the path of humanity and become a demon himself.”
They weren’t lacking in overall power, but some unknown sinister force was constantly pouring strength into him.
The fact that the Divine Light Demon, who had held the front lines until now, had significantly weakened after pouring all his strength into the fighting so far also played a part.
“He’s mad. To think one on the verge of the Divine Transformation Realm would turn himself into a jiangshi. What in the world is he thinking?”
“Hah! So it was true? I thought he’d used some evil great art of the demonic cult. He’s far madder than I thought!”
In the process, the Heavenly Demon had been forced to resist with all his might, and even the demonic qi of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art could no longer fully conceal the aura of death.
At that, those who had until now been half in doubt, thinking surely not, were finally struck with certainty and cried out in shock—but.
“...Well now, quite a lot have died.”
Even amid all that, the Heavenly Demon merely looked around with an utterly calm expression.
Countless casualties had fallen on both sides, gruesome corpses lay strewn everywhere, and even at this very moment his own subordinates continued to die, filling the entire space with death qi—yet he seemed not to care in the slightest.
“Ah! You said you wondered why I willingly stepped into death, didn’t you?”
As if everything was going exactly according to his plan.
The monster imitating the living smiled ferociously.
As though there was no longer any need to hide it, the aura of death that had been lurking in secret began to encroach upon his entire body.
“I recently obtained something good, you see. Something very good.”
Goooooo—
A pitch-black energy burst forth from his body.
A power that held darkness not merely black, but like the abyss deep beneath the earth.
The moment the martial artists stepped back to remain on guard and took defensive stances—
[Wait, this aura is!]
The White Dragon, who had been concentrating on stabilizing the distortion of space, cried out in shock.
An aura he had personally experienced in the past was suddenly making its presence known.
From deep beneath the ground of this demonic realm.
[Don’t tell me!]
The great thief of Geumodo, Tam, who had possessed the authority of devouring and swallowed countless dragons.
The White Dragon could tell that its remains were buried beneath this demonic realm.
And that they had been activated through a connection with the Heavenly Demon.
[So that was the source of his endless power! We must stop him! If that man uses that power—!]
But the White Dragon’s cry came a little too late.
Before those who heard his voice could make any move, the Heavenly Demon sank into the darkness that had covered the ground in an instant, then abruptly appeared outside the encirclement of the masters.
“Ghk!”
In his right hand, he was clutching the neck of one of the Dragon’s Children who had fallen back to the rear—Jegal Hyemi.
“At last, all the conditions have been met.”
A land overflowing with death, where death qi surged.
The predator Tam, still possessing a powerful presence even after death.
And himself, who had accepted death and become one with it.
“Hand over your karma.”
An existence that had devoured countless karmas, only to be devoured by karma itself in the end.
The Karma Jiangshi Heavenly Demon began to suck away the karma of the “Dragon’s Child”—
“As if I’d let you!”
Shhk—
And at that moment, along with a voice that cut in—
A sharp slicing sound split the space and rang out.
“Are you all right, Lady Jegal?”
“Cough, cough... Y-Young Master Ha?”
No one knew when he had arrived there, but at the moment of absolute peril, the young hero had severed the Heavenly Demon’s arm and rescued Jegal Hyemi, holding her in his arms as he retreated.
And the Profound Realm masters did not miss the brief opening he had bought. In an instant, they closed in and once again surrounded the Heavenly Demon, who was staring down at his severed forearm with a twisted expression.
“...You bastard. You interfere with me until the very end...!”
As he spat out his rage, as if he had lost the perfect opportunity, the dragons in the sky descended above his head and slowly circled.
They glared down at him with wide-open eyes, as if declaring that whatever trick he tried now, they would never stand by and let it happen.
‘Good.’
Among them, the eyes of the Gold Dragon Horus gleamed faintly.
At long last, all the pieces for the proper ending had fallen into place.