Chapter 329: Heavenly Retribution
Talum’s question gave Gruwen pause since she hadn’t expected it at all. She watched as Talum continued to pet his dragon, and Gruwen immediately knew that this was something that had been bothering Talum for a long time. Out of all the Generals, Talum was definitely the General with the closest bonds to his dragons. Not only did Talum get his dragons at a very young age, but he also managed to bond with three of them. So it was obvious that the recent incident at the Ashenvalley would have affected him more than the others. Gruwen still didn’t believe that it was real, but she couldn’t deny it since so many people had been saying it at the same time. The dragons and wyverns at the Ashenvalley refused to form any more contracts with dragonborn children.
This might not seem like a big deal for most of the civilians, but it was a very big deal for the military. If things continued as they were, then there would be no more dragonriders to join the military, and they would slowly lose their numbers. And in a few centuries, they would no longer be able to fight back against any world that wants to invade them. Gruwen answered Talum’s question as seriously as she could.
"I don’t know what the elder dragons are trying to achieve by turning the dragonborn children away, but the Sovereign promised that he had a solution to the problem, so we can only put our hope in him."
"His idea is to kill all the Elder Dragons and take the young dragons by force. He even started gathering troops to storm the forest. It’s the height of foolishness."
Gruwen’s face immediately scrunched up in shock when she heard Talum insulting the Sovereign, and she looked around to make sure that no one was around to hear that before she gave Talum a hard look.
"Watch your mouth, Talum. You might be young, but you won’t be able to use that as an excuse with the Sovereign. If you continue saying whatever comes to your head without a filter, then it will be your head on the chopping block."
Talum’s eyes widened slightly when he heard Gruwen’s warning. This was the first time that Gruwen would be speaking to him like that, and Talum realized that he had done something really bad! Talum released a small huff, and he nodded to Gruwen while muttering a small apology.
Gruwen frowned in confusion as she wondered what had gotten into him, but she eventually shook her head before saying:
"I’ll send a team to check on Jaraht and report back to you. Thanks for lending me your ear."
Talum gave a strained smile in return, and he told Gruwen that she was welcome before he watched her walk back over the stone bridge. Once she was far enough, Talum slapped his face with both hands and let out a frustrated cry!
"I made such a fool of myself! Why can’t I just tell her I like her like a normal fucking person!?"
The dragon beside Talum released another rough chuckle when it heard Talum’s frustration, and Talum turned to it and told it to shut up! It wasn’t helping at all! Talum sighed and ran a hand through his hair again. He had been in love with Gruwen for as long as he could remember, but he just didn’t have the courage to confess to her. Even though he didn’t have trouble speaking his mind about anything else, it was just impossible for him to speak up about the one thing that he really wanted.
’I wonder if she even notices how much I like her.’
Talum knew that Gruwen was married to her work, so he wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t even know that he was always watching her. Talum’s wyvern came up from behind him and poked him with its nose to ask for more food, and Talum sighed as he turned to grab another slab of meat!
DOON!
But Talum suddenly paused in his tracks as he felt something shift in the air! A massive pressure washed over Talum like a blanket, and Talum looked up in shock when he saw the sky darkening! What the actual fuck was going on!
Woosh!
A strong wind blew over the entire city, and the civilians who had been in the parks and markets all began to panic as they held their hands up to their faces to try to block the dust that was being lifted by the winds! Some of the civilians who were standing in the central park in the city looked up in shock when they saw a figure floating over them! The figure was dressed in all black, and it held a long staff in one hand that it was using to carve a circular rune into the sky in front of it! The civilians had no idea what was going on, and they couldn’t do anything as the figure suddenly pointed its staff towards the ground, and the circle it had drawn in the sky shot downwards and slammed into the middle of the park! The winds all around them picked up even more, and at the next moment, the rune expanded across the entire city!
Azrael watched emotionless through dark, cavernous eyes as the [Soul Drain] rune spread out from the central park and began to move over the entire city! It covered the marketplace, the school, the residential area, and even the castle! And once Azrael was certain that the Rune had covered everything in the city, he pulsed his mana through the center of the rune and activated the key!
TWOOM!
A pulse of magic spread out across the entire city in the form of a bright light racing out from the city center, and as the light passed over the civilians, they began to drop like fucking flies! Every single person in the park fell to their knees and dropped to the ground lifelessly! The children in the schools fell to their desks as their heads hit the wood with dull sounds! The market goers and sellers all fell to the ground, and even those who were inside their own houses also fell to the ground! Azrael felt a heavy influx of mana coming into his body, and he quickly worked towards separating that mana from the mana that he used to perform magecraft.
Although Azrael could have just taken the magic that he absorbed from these people’s souls and used it, he had been told by Jason that they were not going to kill the civilians in the town, and the only way he could make sure the civilians weren’t killed by this technique was by taking only enough of their soul to put them into unconsciousness so they could return them to life when they were done with thier battles.
But the one problem with this skill was the fact that it only carried the same amount of power from everyone under its influence! So even though the civilians and children were knocked out cold from Azrael only taking a significantly small part of their souls, that would not be the case for the soldiers! The soldiers all had much more powerful souls since they had trained their bodies and magic, so it was likely that Azrael wouldn’t even take more than fifty percent from the weaker soldiers and twenty to ten percent from the stronger soldiers! But even a twenty percent reduction from the stronger soldiers would make things far easier for Jason and the other superhumans!
Azrael looked up, and his eyes narrowed when he saw multiple figures flying towards him! They were all dragons from the Royal Army, and Azrael immediately knew that they had tracked the source of the magic attack to find him so quickly. Azrael sent a message out to Jason to inform him that the [Soul Drain] rune was successful before he prepared himself for battle.
Azrael raised his staff into the air and activated an incredible AOE spell that caused the entire region to plunge into shadows as dark clouds covered the sky! Lightning arched over the air, and a deep rumble echoed through the city!
[Heavenly Retribution]!!
Azrael’s glare hardened as he unleashed death upon his attackers!
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