Chương 44: Nifl

In her final moments, after Elizabeth had expended every ounce of her power to defeat the enemy yet failed to destroy it completely, a powerful beam streaked in from hundreds of kilometers away and blasted away half of the Nightmare Lord's body. Blue flames of frost rapidly spread across the rest of his blazing form. The hand burning into her flesh froze solid in an instant, shattered, and released her. She fell into the soft snow beneath, formed by the beam's distant impact.

"W-Wha...?" Elizabeth coughed up blood, groaning in pain as Mongrel, Dryad, and Paragon—each as battered and exhausted as she was—rushed to her side and held her up.

"Who is that?! You guys... wait... is that... Auntie?" she muttered weakly. For a fleeting moment, she believed the massive silhouette looming on the horizon was her aunt, come to save her. But that was impossible. Her aunt was cursed, sick, and drained. The one who had come to her rescue was someone else entirely—an immense figure leading her own army of hundreds of thousands of dragons. Her body was colossal, her beauty even more dazzling than Hrymdra's.

Crystal-like scales covered her, and her wings were formed of pure ice crystals. She possessed a long, graceful swan-like neck and a small, delicate head crowned with sharp, glowing sapphire eyes. As she advanced, the winter that the nightmare flames had melted away returned with overwhelming force. The entire realm trembled with every step she took.

"An utterly gigantic dragon?!" Elizabeth gasped, stunned beyond belief, before coughing up more blood.

"Eugh—ack! W-wait, this is...? Who could this be?!" She could not recall such a being from the sandbox world she had created before transmigrating. Yet she recognized her at once. The connection resonated deep within her own bloodline. This dragon was its origin.

"That's..." Her eyes widened as the titanic dragon's gaze fell upon her. The primordial being approached, towering like a living mountain, and finally loomed directly above her.

"Elizabeth, my great-great-granddaughter. It is good to finally see you. Everyone in the Ice Dragon Realm owes you our eternal gratitude."

"G-Great... great-grandma?!" Elizabeth gasped. The dragon history her father had taught her came rushing back.

"Y-You're Nifl...! The Primordial Dragon Mother of Ice Dragons! Direct child of Tiamat!"

"That's right. I'm glad your parents taught you our history properly. It is a pity this is the first time we meet."

"Wow..." Another giant figure descended from the skies and landed before her—a majestic white-and-azure ice dragon with fur covering parts of his body. Healing energy flowed from him at once.

"Nice to meet you, Elizabeth. I am your aunt Yudra's son. Call me Uncle Yudrak," he said in a kind, gentle voice. Cold winds swirled around her, rapidly mending her wounds.

"Uncle Yudrak... I've heard about you. You're next in line for Zipangu, right?!" Elizabeth slowly pushed herself to her feet.

"Wow!"

"That's right. Though I still don't feel worthy to govern an entire world," the giant, furred dragon replied.

"My mother is growing tired of the role, but... this is not the time for that." He raised his hand and manifested a majestic divine barrier. BOOOM! A colossal volcano erupted from the ground without warning, followed by another, and another. BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! All the dragons stepped back—except for Nifl, who calmly watched the volcanoes. Their magma and flames never reached her before freezing solid. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"What's happening?! Didn't Grandma kill it?!" Elizabeth asked in disbelief.

"Not yet...!" Yudrak answered, keeping Elizabeth and her familiars safely inside a divine barrier bubble.

"Thank you for holding this threat back until we arrived. This battle is already beyond your strength, little one. You are our most talented descendant, and even my mother sees that one day you will surpass even the Divine Dragon King. But it is still too soon. Watch and learn how we divine dragons handle such threats."

"!!!" Elizabeth gasped as a gigantic being rose from the ground where the infernal domain had spread—a colossal, salamander-like monstrosity of boiling nightmare magma and flames, its body covered in mountains of hard purple and red crystals. It roared furiously.

"It's still alive?!" she cried.

"RAAAAAHHHHH!!!" The monster rose to match the Primordial Dragoness in size, overflowing with nightmare and divine power stolen from the ice dragons' sacred lands.

"HUHUH... HAHAHAHA! THIS IS PERFECT! NOW THAT YOU'RE ALL HERE, I CAN KILL YOU ALL AT ONCE AND FEAST UPON YOUR SOULS, DRAGONS!!!" The giant charged toward Nifl, spreading flames that distorted reality itself and created an endless infernal domain trapping everyone inside. At the same time, thousands of nightmare flame giants—multi-armed asuras wielding weapons and giant draconian salamanders—surged forth to attack.

"Ice Dragons! Do not hold back! Defend your home!!!" Nifl's commanding roar shook the heavens. All the ice dragons answered in unison. Her aura surged outward, sharing her Divinity with every dragon present and multiplying their power tenfold.

"ROOOAARRR!" The Ice Dragons channeled their own Divinities and unleashed a barrage of devastating ice spells: giant icicles, glacial meteors, ice sea serpents, frozen divine swords, ice coffins, all-consuming frost waves, Winter's Wrath, and countless others Elizabeth had never witnessed before. The sheer display left her speechless. BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! As explosions of frost tore across the burning domain, Elizabeth watched her great-grandmother clash with the monster that had nearly killed her.

The magma titan fought fiercely, swinging its burning claws and trying to melt through her scales—only for the scales to freeze him solid on contact.

"?! You believe you can harm a primordial like me?"

"YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A MERE LIZARD!" The giant salamander hissed, opening its jaws and unleashing a devastating breath attack of nightmare flames and magma. The blast struck Nifl with a massive explosion. Yet she simply opened her own delicate jaws. A small azure light gathered, then erupted into a tremendously powerful beam of frost divinity.

"Your attempts are futile, beast from another dimension." BOOOOMMM!!!

"Kuuaaaaaeeeeggghhh?!" His magma breath was instantly overpowered. The rest of his body shattered as the massive ice breath tore through him. At the same time, Nifl's power spread through the land like roots, severing the entire area from the realm and turning it into a floating island. Yudrak swung his claws toward the sky, and the weakened infernal domain shattered completely.

"W-What are you—?! No! The Nightmare Nest!!!" the monster screamed, surging again from the giant piece of land he had fused with.

"Y-YOUUUUU!!!" Thousands of magma and nightmare hands erupted from the ground as it transformed into an even larger titan, the pulsing Nether Nest Core glowing with dark power inside its chest.

"DIE!!!" The hands rushed toward her. Nifl spread her wings and released a potent shockwave of frost, freezing the entire foe in a single second.

"Absolute Frost – Primordial Winter Coffin."

"AAAAACK?!" There was no struggle. The monstrosity froze instantly. Nifl was simply superior—an almighty primordial. The core froze and shattered. The giant exploded into pieces, showering the area with frost dust. Elizabeth smiled brightly, celebrating with all the ice dragons as the great evil was vanquished.

"They did it! They did it!!!" she cried happily.

"THEY DID IT!!!" Everyone raised their arms in joy as the giant shattered into nothing but dust.

"It is done," Nifl said, closing her eyes for a moment.

"But this was far too dangerous. If it had been allowed to fester any longer—""Oh, but this isn't over, my dear."

"?!" A gigantic obsidian hand burst from the ice dust, seized Nifl's neck, and crushed it with terrifying strength. The primordial dragoness groaned and vomited blood as her neck neared destruction under a force even greater than her own.

"GAAHA?!" Nifl's giant hands flew up to fight the massive obsidian appendage—five long fingers tipped with sharp red claws and a giant eye on the palm, leaking miasmic blood. Elizabeth and the other dragons gasped in horror. Nifl poured her divinity into suppressing the hand, freezing it and trying to erase it with primordial energy. But nothing worked.

"Nothing works?!" she choked, coughing blood in disbelief.

"Impossible... That thing was so weak, yet this mere hand is...?!"

"Surprised?" the obsidian hand spoke.

"I am what is called a Nightmare King. Nice to meet you. Even if it is only my hand, I have infiltrated this world—and now I will make it mine." The hand tightened its grip. Red claws dug deeper into Nifl's crystalline scales as black miasma poured into her like living poison, inflicting pain unlike anything the primordial had ever known. Then, in a gentle yet strangely warped voice, the entity whispered its name.

"I am the Devourer of Realms, Sovereign of the Nightmare Nest, Valthorak. And your little 'primordial divinity' means nothing to me."