Chapter 445: Endless Darkness
Chunks, solid as molten rock, splattered down.
Two dragons—one wreathed in ice, the other in flames—plummeted like meteors.
A figure came to a halt beside Olivia.
“You’re far beyond a simple exchange now. You’re both seriously trying to kill each other.”
Olivia’s once-lustrous red eyes stared blankly at George, as if her soul had already departed, leaving only an empty shell behind.
George frowned, crouched down, and placed a hand on Olivia’s shoulder. A faint glow emerged from his palm.
Moments later, he withdrew his hand—but his frown only deepened.
Olivia was healthy.
So healthy, in fact, that her abnormality was obvious.
What exactly had happened?
George was about to close his eyes and invoke a prayer technique, but the roars of the two dragons—and their twin breaths—shattered his thoughts.
It was a destructive force where ice and fire entwined.
George stood up, fixed his gaze ahead, took a deep breath, and drew his sword.
A golden pillar of light shot into the sky. He swung forcefully, enveloping the twin breaths in its glow, and in an instant, they were erased.
Yet, it was as if those breaths were no more than greetings from the two dragons. They charged at George, wings flaring, powerful hind legs thundering forward, jaws wide open.
A primal assault.
Even when George unleashed slashes infused with magic, he could only leave non-lethal wounds on them. If anything, the injuries seemed to make the dragons even more ferocious.
Their roars seemed to tear through the heavens, drowning out George’s own battle cry.
The more he fought them, the more horrified George became.
How long had these two dragons even existed?
Yet they were already this powerful!
George could clearly sense the scorching heat beneath their resilient scales.
It was the most primal force—savagery, desire, hatred, and fury.
Right now, these beasts were only under control because their creator, Aen, was still alive.
But Aen was human. What would happen after Aen died?
What then could be done about these dragons?
They were far too dangerous. They had to be slain before they could wreak greater havoc.
George’s gaze sharpened. His pale golden eyes suddenly turned a brilliant gold.
“Lord, grant me guidance.”
The landscape blurred, swept backward—George sprinted across the land.
Dragons that dominated the skies and wielded breath attacks held an innate advantage.
And George’s magic was limited. He couldn’t unleash magical bursts indefinitely.
Moreover, the two dragons seemed to possess some form of resistance to magic. His attacks couldn’t deal effective damage.
It seemed to be an innate trait passed down from their origin as beings of fantasy.
George’s sword was forged only from refined iron ore—not a sacred artifact. Only by coating it with magic could he barely pierce their defenses.
But even then, piercing those defenses was already the limit. He couldn’t go any further.
So he had to find their weak points.
A single, fatal vulnerability.
Through golden eyes, he saw it—a golden arc on the dragon’s chest.
That was it!
George tightened his grip on the sword, slowing down slightly, allowing the two dragons to draw nearer.
Ten li, five li, one li… one hundred meters.
Now!
George suddenly halted, magic bursting from him. He shot forward like a golden ray of light, heading straight for one dragon.
It was the fire dragon. From the gaps in its scales, blinding red light spilled out, as if its entire body was made of searing flames—its very scales encasing a living volcano.
And a hundred meters was a distance that both a sixth-tier Holy Knight like George and a sixth-tier dragon could cross in the blink of an eye.
So George’s sudden assault caught the fire dragon off guard.
A golden arc sliced through it. Scales and flesh sprayed into the air. The dragon let out a wailing cry.
It was a cry laced with fear. Its wings faltered, its massive body plummeting to the earth.
A gash split across its chest, revealing its beating heart within.
As George adjusted his stance to face the approaching ice dragon, his gaze revealed some regret.
Even though his speed had been immense, the fire dragon’s instincts had still made it flinch slightly at the last moment. As a result, the golden arc had only sliced open a gap—it hadn’t pierced its heart directly.
Still, George gripped his sword, now slightly deformed from the heat.
That revealed spot was the dragon’s weakest point. And it wasn’t as small as it had looked from a distance. Beneath the massive body of the dragon, the golden arc had been the height of a man, half a man in width.
And even the blade alone, through sheer sharpness, could tear it open.
“If the magi-crystal cannon hits that weak spot, even these beasts could be killed!”
But George knew that was unlikely. These two dragons were, after all, sixth-tier beings.
Without opponents of equal strength to hold them down, their breath alone could level a city.
As for the cumbersome magi-crystal cannons—even their projectile impact couldn’t rival the speed at which the dragons flew.
“So they must be slain here!”
With that thought, George drew in a deep breath. His eyes locked onto the ice dragon, and the world seemed to slow. The dragon’s flight path unfolded clearly before his eyes.
As the ice dragon neared, George’s magic erupted. His entire body blazed like a small golden sun.
Empowered by his own magic, he could briefly maneuver in midair.
The ice dragon closed in, jaws opening wide to bite down on the golden sun.
But it was like biting into an unbreakable stone. The golden sun lodged in the dragon’s jaws.
“Rrroooar—” A low growl rumbled from its throat. The ice dragon spread its wings and soared higher.
It broke through the clouds, climbing ever upward—flying, flying, flying—until it seemed to cross some unseen threshold. Wrapped in golden magic, George felt as though he had entered a strange, unfamiliar realm.
Through the golden veil of magic, George saw what looked like endless darkness. Even the sun, in his vision a source of infinite light and heat, couldn’t illuminate it fully. Amid that darkness were specks—bright and dim alike.
Were those stars?
The stars that shimmered in the night?
Why were they so massive?
And they didn’t seem to emit light…
As if—discarded lifeless into this vast darkness.
Suddenly, George saw strange flickers of light dancing in the endless dark.
What were they?
It felt like unspeakable terror, impossible to look at directly.
But he had no time to think.
He felt the ice dragon’s throat rumble with a low chant, as if it were calling to something.
George didn’t know what it was. The prayer technique gave him an answer—but it was something he didn’t quite understand.
“Help.”
Help?
Did that mean—the dragon was calling for help… from beyond the earth? From something in this darkness?
The moment George realized this, the golden magical veil began to crack—like glass breaking.
“A seventh-tier demigod?! But why does it only register as sixth-tier on the surface?!”
George said in disbelief.
But there was no response. Not even his prayer technique offered any answer. It was as if he had suddenly been severed from the Lord.
Had the Lord abandoned him?
George asked himself.
No!
He immediately rejected the thought—a blasphemous notion.
The benevolent Lord would never abandon His children, just as His children would forever hold Him in their hearts.
Which meant—some incomprehensibly evil force had blocked his connection to the Lord!
Blasphemy! Blasphemy! Blasphemy! This was blasphemy!
The brilliant gold faded from George’s eyes, replaced by bloodshot rage.
And then, the golden veil shattered, and he was swallowed by the ice dragon.