Chương 35: Blazing Hearts

The sky above the city bruised, turning the color of a fresh wound as the dragon prepared its judgment. Magic circles manifested behind its head, bleeding into existence with the cold precision of a geometric nightmare. The outer rings hummed, stabilizing the rivers of Aether, while the inner rings rotated in opposing directions, glowing with ancient scripts that dictated the laws of the spell.

"Gruzthar vrek, yrmaar kor. Vryndar skael, zytrix morlaen…" [Resonance Control (Uncommon)] As the beast began the chant, it invoked its skills. [Resonance Control]—a skill that allowed its user to refine the magical frequency, turning a blunt explosion into a surgical strike of stability. —Tier-3 Magic: Flarion Swarm— Two concentric circles ignited. A swarm of small embers materialized around them, instantly morphing into fiery projectiles that tore through the air toward Noa.

He sidestepped the first volley, shifting his weight and twisting his torso out of its path. But as he sprinted toward the beast, a relentless barrage followed. Blistering missiles found their mark, burning his clothes and painting his flesh with burn marks, while the ones he dodged cratered the earth, leaving pools of liquid fire in his wake. Noa ground his teeth, welcoming the burning agony as fuel as he closed the distance.

Anticipating his approach, the dragon dragged a massive claw through the earth, kicking up a tidal wave of dust and shattered stone. As the sweeping limb crossed his path, Noa inhaled, launching himself into the air and pulling back a tightly coiled fist.

"You fucker!" he barked. His knuckles slammed into the dragon's shoulder with the force of a battering ram, unleashing a concussive shockwave that nearly swept the fleeing civilians off their feet. Suspended in mid-air from the recoil of his strike, Noa became an easy target. The dragon snarled, reactivating its previous magic to unleash another swarm of homing flames. Lacking a physical foothold to dodge, Noa activated [Blink], warping instantly back to the ground.

The moment his boots touched the ground, the projectiles corrected their trajectory, swarming down toward him like vengeful hornets. Simultaneously, a blinding concentration of Aether began to swell between the dragon's jaws. Fuck… Noa's black sclera widened slightly as the purple irises within them tracked the incoming missiles. Through the barrage, he saw it—a radiating, crimson breath erupting from the beast's maw.

Burning through his Aether, he activated [Blink] again, flashing mere yards away just as the inferno struck his previous position, flash-melting the cobblestones into glowing amber glass. The dragon swept its neck, tracking the beam of searing breath toward his new location. Unfazed, Noa hoisted a massive slab of concrete from a ruined building, a jagged bark of amusement escaping his throat.

"Catch this, you lizard!" He hurled the boulder with all his strength. It struck the side of the dragon's snout with a thunderous crack, knocking its head askew. The crimson beam veered off course, incinerating a squad of armored knights rushing from Count Fain's mansion instead. Seizing the opening, Noa teleported into the beast's guard. He jumped upward, his fist warped in dark, purple energy, and drove a punch into the exact spot the concrete had shattered.

Boiling blood, just as vibrantly red as its flames, erupted from the dragon's jaws. In return, its furious amber eyes shrank into narrow slits as it unleashed a deafening shriek—a sound that rattled the foundations of the entire city. You human—!

"Hahaha~ how do you like that?" Noa flashed a wicked grin up at its glowing eyes.

"Getting slapped twice!" [Draconic Core Circulation (Rare)] The dragon's chest began to pulse with an molten light as it optimized its internal Aether flow. Every vein bulged, surging with raw power and accelerating its casting speed to a lethal tempo.

"Xyros falkyr, thyraek roth!" —Tier-2 Magic: Aegis Flare— Three magic circles materialized, orbiting the dragon's massive forearm. They ignited simultaneously, wrapping the limb in a localized hurricane of crimson flames before swatting forward at the airborne Noa like a falling meteor. Shit… it can cast that fast?! And that speed—!

"Urgh!" The clawed palm swatted him like a fly. The sheer kinetic force launched Noa backward through the air, sending him plowing through a stone house, then a market store. Like a skipped stone, he shattered through building after building, before finally coming to a halt cratered deep inside a solid rock wall. A fleeing family slowed their frantic escape, coughing through the dust as they spotted the figure collapsed in the rubble.

Having witnessed him battling the beast as they ran, they stepped closer, desperate to aid their fallen hero.

"It's him…" one whispered.

"The man fighting the dragon." Slumped against the debris, Noa blankly watched a wound on his arm slowly regenerate. Nice… [Mind Fortress] is holding back the backlashes from [Echo Reclamation]. [Low Pain Resistance] and [Minor Regeneration] are putting in work, too. But my Aether is fucking low, and… He glanced down at a jagged laceration across his chest. …the big ones take too damn long. Meanwhile, sensing its prey was immobilized, the dragon began to draw in a vacuum of air, charging another blast.

"Hah!" Noa scoffed, planting a bloodied palm on the ground and forcing himself upward. The civilians rushed in to help, only to freeze when the dust settled. The man was smiling. It wasn't the reassuring grin of a savior, nor the noble warmth of a knight. It was an unhinged smirk radiating pure insanity.

"Hehehe… this is what I'm talking about," Noa muttered. He planted his boots firmly in the rubble, locking his gaze on the beast.

"The kind of fun I haven't had since fighting Valvakile." He threw his arms wide like a conductor welcoming an orchestra, volatile purple energy bleeding from his skin.

"C'mon! Give me more!" Arrogant human! The dragon thought. Expanding its assault, it manifested a secondary magic circle above Noa even as the inferno brewed in its throat. —Tier-3 Magic: Crimson Helix— The circle overhead unleashed twin torrents of fire—one a deep blood-red, the other a blinding orange. The two streams spiraled around each other like DNA of pure heat as they plunged toward Noa.

Without missing a beat, Noa snatched a man from the paralyzed group of civilians, ripping the broadsword from the terrified man's hip. Clamping the blade between his teeth, Noa lunged with his now-free hand and grabbed a second civilian by the collar.

"What the—!"

"Hey!" You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Noa shot them an amused chuckle through clenched teeth.

"You're the sacrifices~" Both men reached desperately for their screaming families as Noa hurled them upward into the path of the descending fire. The helix of flames collided with their backs. For a split second, the fire seemed to compress, absorbing their mass, before expanding into a massive crimson explosion that turned both men to ash and bone.

"Come here!" Noa grinned, his hand shooting out to grab a woman by her hair. Gripping the stolen sword in one hand, he sprinted straight for the dragon, ruthlessly dragging the flailing woman behind him. As he closed the distance, he swung his arm, hurling the woman directly into the dragon's open maw. Her body slammed into the mass of gathering Aether, destabilizing the breath and triggering a misfire. Using the distraction, Noa vaulted off a ruined pillar, launching himself directly onto the beast's snout.

The disrupted breath detonated inside the dragon's throat. While the blast wasn't potent enough to breach the creature's internal scales, the beast snapped its jaws shut in reflex, crunching the woman's body with a sickening snap. Feeling the sudden weight on its snout, the dragon flicked its draconic pupils upward. But instead of a man, its vision was filled by the descending tip of a steel blade.

"Shiny, isn't it?" Noa whispered, plunging the broadsword to the hilt directly into the dragon's amber eye. A geyser of thick, boiling blood ruptured outward, staining the golden orb a horrific crimson.

"GRAAAAW!!!" The dragon roared in unprecedented agony, thrashing its head wildly side-to-side in a frantic bid to dislodge both the agonizing steel and the parasite clinging to its scales. The whipping motion bucked Noa into the air, spinning him like a ragged doll. Surrendering to the momentum, he executed a flawless mid-air rotation. As gravity reclaimed him, he coiled his arm back and dropped like an anvil, aiming a punch straight down into the dragon's spine.

"Take this, you stupid lizard!" he roared, driving his fist downward. [Scaled Hide (Rare)] Mere fractions of an inch before impact, the dragon's scales rippled. They shifted and locked together with the crunch of compressing bone, forging a singular, impenetrable shell across its back. Noa's fist struck the hardened hide, and the resulting impact rang through the city like the tolling drumbeat of doomsday.

The kinetic feedback triggered a localized earthquake, leveling three surrounding city blocks in a microsecond. Stone walls atomized into powder, and the screams of the dying were drowned out as the district simply ceased to stand beneath the crushing force of the blow. SWOOOSH! As Noa stared down at the crimson scales, his eyes widening in surprise, the dragon's tail whipped around like a guillotine. Shit—! The blunt-force struck him, launching him backward once again.

Fresh blood sprayed from his lips and reopened wounds. But this time, as he tumbled through the air with blurring vision— That is… a wound? He saw it. Beneath its chest lay a fatal, gaping laceration—a jagged, unhealed slash, likely the remnant of some previous battle. —Tier-3 Magic: Flarion Swarm— Noa crashed into the dirt, bouncing across the rubble before forcing himself up to his feet yet again, coughing up a laugh that bordered on complete lunacy. He stared at the beast.

The twin magical rings behind its head were already spitting a fresh barrage of fire at him. But something much worse reflected in his purple irises—the dragon was inhaling, charging another breath attack, far faster than before. Not again! Just how much Aether does this fucker have?! he cursed inwardly, weaving through the incoming firestorm. Then the breath fired. The blinding amber radiance washed over him, reflecting vividly in his purple eyes as the incoming inferno threatened to consume him.

Unlike before, the well was dry; he didn't have enough Aether left for a [Blink]. My body is cooked, and my Aether is low… these skills are draining too much. He gritted his teeth, making a choice. Deactivate [Low Pain Resistance]. Deactivate [Minor Regeneration]. And… deactivate [Mind Fortress]. The moment the restraints of [Mind Fortress] dropped, [Echo Reclamation] crashed into his psyche like a tidal wave of sheer madness.

The volatile purple energy stopped flowing and began to rampage, ripping uncontrollably across his skin in a storm of corrupted power. With the dragon's breath a mere heartbeat from incinerating him, Noa's lips split into a euphoric grin.

"[Echo Reclamation]... consume me!" The scorching beam engulfed him completely. It was a localized apocalypse, flash-melting the cobblestones and surrounding debris into a bubbling pool of amber-white slag. The ambient heat alone warped the air, igniting wood and flesh blocks away without even touching them. That should have turned him to ash, right? the dragon reasoned, its one good eye and the ruined, bleeding socket fixed on the epicenter of the strike.

"HAHAHAHAH!" A booming laugh, dripping with amusement, tore through the superheated steam. The dragon recoiled. Noa was still standing. His flesh was charred and burnt, pushed to the edge of destruction, but the rampaging energy of [Echo Reclamation] had served as a perverse shield. He looked like a demon born of the pyre, wreathed entirely in purple energy that flickered and roared like dark fire.

"C'mon, lizard!" He took a step forward.

"Both of our hearts are blazing in flames!" Propelled by pure madness, Noa sprinted blindly into the heat. Dashing past the ruins of a blacksmith's shop, he snatched up a massive length of heavy iron chain. Channeling the overflow of [Echo Reclamation] directly into the metal, Noa hurled it forward like a snare, wrapping it tightly around the dragon's thick neck. The beast thrashed its neck in sheer irritation, whipping Noa, who stubbornly clung to the other end, through the air.

As the chain coiled tighter and the slack disappeared, Noa waited for the right moment. At the apex of his swing, he let go, weaponizing the kinetic energy to hurl his body like a human cannonball straight toward the gaping chest wound he had spotted earlier.

"Die, you bald lizard!" He poured every last drop of his rampaging power into his feet, driving a dropkick directly into the exposed, bloody flesh of the gash. THUMM!

"ROAR!" The dragon shrieked in agony. It thrashed blindly, tail and limbs flailing, obliterating the remaining architecture in its desperate panic. [Molten Scales (Rare)] Just as Noa anchored himself against the raw flesh to follow up with another strike, the dragon's body spiked in temperature. Its armor liquefied into glowing, molten iron, instantly searing Noa's limbs where he touched it. Howling, he kicked off the beast to retreat, but the dragon wasn't finished.

A forearm swept through the smoke directly at him. You fuck—stop doing that! Noa mentally screamed as the backhand caught him, launching him like a comet across the battlefield yet again. After crashing through another block of stone houses, Noa finally tumbled to a stop far from the beast. His body was a tapestry of broken bones and burned flesh, but still, he forced a trembling boot to the earth.

The muscles in his neck had completely given out, letting his head loll uselessly to his chest, until, with a grunt, he manually snapped it back up. He stared upward—not at the towering monster, but at the bruised sky. A long, ragged breath rattled past his teeth. Slowly, he lowered his chin, locking eyes with the dragon one last time. I don't have the strength to keep fighting... he analyzed, noting the dragon's equally labored breathing. And I know you're running on empty, too. So, let's end this shit.

He raised his arms, cupping his hands in front of his stomach with his palms facing the heavens, and activated [Echo Reclamation] one last time. But now, rather than warping around his body or getting infused to a weapon, the purple energy funneled directly to the space between his hands, slowly condensing into an unstable sphere. [Echo Reclamation] gathered the negative emotions in an area, converting them into raw, destructive power.

Ever since he used [Echo Reclamation] at Blackmoor, Noa had a question lingering in his mind: what if, instead of coating an object, he use himself as the conduit, bypassing the usual Aether cost entirely, and focusing the energy into a singularity? Now, he was putting that theory to the final test. He was condensing the suffering of thousands into a single point of existence. The rot of Cerma flowed to him like rivers to an ocean.

The terror of the slaughtered citizens, the hollow rage of broken soldiers, the grief of grieving mothers—it all rushed into the sphere between his palms. The dragon, sensing the unsettling energy, prepared its own final move. [Dragonheart Convergence (Unique)] • Synchronizes body, Aether, and flame into one state, drastically increasing fire magic output. Its wings flared wide as a volume of Aether erupted, distorting the space around its form.

A gigantic magic circle ignited above its head—layered rings spinning in opposition, scriptures burning molten red.

"Since you're so desperate to learn something flashy, I'll teach you one," a memory surfaced in the beast's mind—a memory of a man raising a single finger.

"This is the origin magic that birthed the 23rd Dragon King's ultimate technique. The zenith of Tier-4 magic across all elements. Ithryx falkyr krul, bhaakor falkyr…"

"Ithryx falkyr krul, bhaakor falky gruzthar vroqal, zytrix drov. Orok tharn, vryndar skael. Kzael xenir, zvash thyrax." —Tier-4 Magic: Dragon King's Roar— The grand circle fed an ocean of flames until, with a deafening crack, it unleashed a torrent of fire shaped like the roaring head of a dragon. It was a calamity of heat, atomizing the streets into vapor as it surged forward.

"Echo Reclamation: Convergence Collapse!" Noa roared as he thrust his palms outward, launching the sphere of agony into the path of the approaching inferno. The two apocalyptic forces collided in the dead center of Cerma. A blinding flash of crimson and purple illuminated the entire city, forcing the fleeing citizens to unintentionally halt their retreat, paralyzed by the sheer magnitude of the clash. The heavens split in two— one half a screaming crimson, the other a silent, distorted purple-black. WHROOOM!

The Dragon King's Roar fought to expand, desperate to consume everything in its path. Noa's sphere did the opposite. It crushed inward, dragging the ferocious flames into its center, devouring the heat. For a heartbeat, the world held its breath. Sound died. Light vanished. Time itself seemed to pause, the paradox of energies reflecting in the wide irises of the onlookers. Then, reality snapped back into place. A shockwave erupted—a halo of warped kinetic force that scythed through the cityscape.

Watchtowers crumbled into dust. The armor of knights flash-melted into their flesh, vaporizing alongside the citizenry. Entire districts ceased to exist, caught between a king's roar and the collective despair of dying people. Neither power claimed victory. But the city of Cerma, trapped between a beast and a madman, paid the ultimate price.