The gigantic shadow swooped over the Central Garden’s high-rise buildings, its wings spread. This dragon, its scales golden, glared down at the ground as its body leaked disgusting miasma. Its rotting flesh slid off its bones, falling down to the ground in steaming piles. Between its exposed bones was it heart, beating red and glowing.
■■■■■■…!
It let out a cursed howl that shook the air. Its intellect was all but gone.
“You have fallen far, Divine Dragon. Divine Dragon Gisark,” said the Dragon Lord, standing atop the turret of an anti-Void antiaircraft gun with her hair blowing in the wind.
Looking at the Divine Dragon’s changed form, she frowned in displeasure. She, too, was once corrupted by the Voids and turned into a rampaging dragon with her intellect lost. She could only vaguely remember how it happened, but she did know Leonis cleared away the Voids’ influence on her.
“A dragon always repays its debts. I’ll protect your kingdom for you…” Veira smiled invincibly.
And debts aside, the Divine Dragon Gisark was her mortal enemy, one she had a long-standing history with. Gisark was a hero drawing on both the blood of both mankind and dragonkin, borne of a golden dragon and a human woman. Despite his draconic roots, he sided with the armies of men and opposed the dragonkin, and fought Veira to the death in the Demon Dragon Mountain Range.
“I have a debt to repay you, too…!”
Kicking against the turret, Veira propelled herself up to the sky, and stuck out her index finger toward the giant dragon floating in the sky.
“Let’s get this started. Drag Rei!”
A red flash fired from Veira’s finger, hitting the golden dragon head-on with a rumbling blast. Intense flames shot up, producing a heat daze. However…
■■■■■■…!
The golden dragon blew away the flames with a flap of its wings.
It blocked my spell? No, that’s not it…
Veira glared viciously at Gisark, who continued to fly in circles overhead like nothing had happened. Its burnt, decaying flesh was bubbling and regenerating rapidly.
“This isn’t just Void miasma. He’s undead, too.” Veira grit her teeth.
…That thing was a dragon no longer. It was just a dragon’s carcass being puppeteered through necromancy—a dragon zombie.
…The Six Heroes’ Divine Dragon became undead?
It was a little hard to believe. Necromancers were normally only able to raise corpses of monsters that were weaker or equal to them in power. And in this case, this was one of the Six Heroes, meaning even a master of the Realm of Death would fail to resurrect a being of this level of power. The only one who it possibly could be was Leonis Death Magnus, who raised devils and dragons as undead minions.
And I can’t see Leo turning him into his minion…
If that was the case, Gisark wouldn’t be attacking this city, Leo’s kingdom. The only one capable of raising the dead on a level matching the Undead King was the Holy Woman of the Six Heroes, Tearis Resurrectia, but even then, her power didn’t produce undead.
“But it doesn’t matter. Undead or not…” Veira kicked against the air, speeding up as she rapidly drew on the Divine Dragon. “My flames will reduce you to ashes!”
She raised both hands overhead, producing a gigantic fireball.
“Crimson Divine Dragon Wave!”
A dragon-shaped flame burst from her conjoined hands, moving in a spiral pattern and pursuing the Divine Dragon. Wherever the flames passed, buildings melted away and began collapsing.
The flame dragon crunched its jaws on the Divine Dragon’s windpipe, burning through its rotten flesh.
“Good! Consume it!”
Veira swooped down midflight, sinking her heel into the Divine Dragon’s head with all her strength. With a mighty wallop, the Divine Dragon crashed into the Central Garden, knocking down buildings in its way.
The maid did ask her to abstain from destroying buildings where possible, but…
Sorry, the situation doesn’t allow for that!
But this is just Leo’s kingdom, after all, not hers. With that excuse, Veira pressed the offensive.
“Haaaaaaaa! Dragon Lord Palm Strike!”
Veira sunk her fist, charged with mana, into the fallen Divine Dragon’s head. The mana exploded loudly, forming a circular shock wave that blew away the surrounding buildings. But just as Veira was about to unleash a Drag Rei spell at close range—
■■■■■■…!
The Divine Dragon’s charred body rapidly regenerated, its flesh swelling up so as to swallow up Veira.
“…You think you can take me into your being?!”
Veira was being slowly dragged into Gisark’s massive form…. But then, its rotten flesh burst at once. Like an egg hatching, a massive red dragon tore its way out of its rotting flesh. This was Veira Dragon Lord’s true draconic form. The red dragon slashed and crunched through the decaying meat, spitting it to the ground in disgust. It then spread its wings and soared up, spraying its fiery breath on its undead opponent as it tried to regenerate.
Hellfire spread through the Central Garden’s main street. Veira swung down her claws, charged with mana, onto the burning mass of decayed flesh—
…?!
But the blow was stopped by thick tree roots erupting out of Gisark’s back.
…What?!
Gisark just used sorcery…?!
But this couldn’t be the case—the sorcery dragons used was called dragon tongue, and it didn’t include any spells like this. The tree roots matured with explosive speed, binding Veira’s legs, piercing through her dragon roots and gouging into her flesh. Roaring in anger, Veira blew fire on the roots, burning them down.
However, the roots continued to grow and regenerate at startling speed, and this time wrapped all around Veira’s large form.
…The way it’s regenerating so fast! Is this the Holy Tree?!
The tree that once existed at the heart of the world, governing over life. Why was that tree sprouting out of the Holy Dragon’s stomach…?
Veira breathed fire again, burning through the Holy Tree’s roots. As they continued to regenerate, she cleared them away and made to fly off… But then Gisark raised his head and bit into her throat!
…?!
The Divine Dragon’s maw overflowed with death miasma as it bit into her. The red dragon’s burning scales were washed over with black, her flesh dying. The Divine Dragon pulled the red dragon down, knocking her into the ground.
■■■■■■…!
Gisark’s claws tore into Veira’s wings, spraying blood in the process. A roar that felt like someone’s scream echoed through the air. And then, the maw broiling with death miasma tore through Veira’s windpipe—
“Al Gu Belzelga!”
A blast of crimson flame blew off Gisark’s upper jaw.
…?!
A small shadow descended upon the crumbling wreckage of the buildings.
“Fool, you dare ransack the Dark Lord Zol Vadis’s domain?!”
A boy clad in the former Dark Lord’s mantle removed his mask and smiled indomitably.