Generally, the journey from Rygar's home to the Blue Dragon Mountain Range would take about three weeks at a fast pace.
Even a powerful warrior with great endurance, like Badigadi, would need several days to complete the crossing, even running nonstop at high speed.
But for Rygar, that trip took only a few hours.
In a world where communication was rudimentary and travel took days or weeks, that speed was an incomparable advantage.
He was like a walking comet, crossing lands and mountains at absurd velocity. His current objective was the center of the Blue Dragons' territory.
With his present strength, the greatest obstacle he faced in his training was the lack of opponents who posed a true challenge.
In his current state, relying only on his natural strength and the Touki Barrier, even King-level warriors would have difficulty wounding him, even with direct attacks.
And that assumes he stood still to receive the blow.
Only those at Emperor-level could deal considerable damage. Even then, cutting through his bones would be a difficult task.
Without worthy adversaries, he wouldn't gain the combat experience necessary before facing Orsted again.
Rygar had no doubt of the overwhelming high-level battle experience that the Dragon God possessed.
He wanted to be as prepared as possible, not only in raw power and techniques, but in combat experience.
However, he also didn't want to leave the Great Forest while his wives were pregnant.
His instinct told him that leaving them alone at such a time would be a mistake.
The alternative, then, was to throw himself into the heart of the Blue Dragons' territory.
All were A or S rank beasts, and a few even exceeded that standard. But honestly, not even those creatures represented a real threat to Rygar.
He possessed incredibly destructive techniques, both in swordsmanship and magic.
At the beginning of his training, he even encountered a particularly strong group that managed to wound him, but Regeneration Magic easily healed any damage before it became serious.
Despite that, this was the best training ground he could find without leaving the nearby region.
Here, at least, he could let loose and test the limits of his power. Still, he had to be careful not to indiscriminately exterminate the Dragons.
He tended to fight only those more distant or wandering groups.
Although they were very strong, they weren't numerous enough for him to go on a killing spree; the last thing he wanted was to exterminate the species.
Rygar gradually moved closer to the center of the territory. One of the Blue Dragons sensed his scent, for he was not trying to hide.
The roar that followed was deafening, a warning to all others in the vicinity. The sound echoed through the mountains like thunder ripping through the sky.
Rygar landed on one of the peaks, allowing his senses to spread across the entire range. This was one of the great ones.
He could sense the presence of forty-two Blue Dragons nearby. Three of them were especially strong.
He felt them clearly. Their powerful breaths, the heat they emanated, the smell of flesh and blood, the predatory feeling.
Their reptilian golden eyes stared at him as if he were just another prey, a small insect.
But the smartest among them sensed something different. They felt danger. They were cautious.
Then, from a nearby mountain, one of the Dragons took flight. Its roar cut through the air, and it charged, wings beating with familiarity, jaws wide open, ready to swallow Rygar whole in a single bite.
But Rygar did not move.
He remained standing on the mountain peak, while the biting wind mixed the smell of hot sulfur with the cold of the high altitudes.
The mountain ranges rose like natural walls, and the cliffs were steep and treacherous.
Calmly, he activated his Demon Eyes. His eyes glowed golden, perceiving every detail of the world around him.
Every particle of dust in the air, every beat of the dragon's wings, every inch of the environment. His muscles tensed silently.
And then, he brought his fingers to the hilt of his sword.
His blue sword, Tsukikage, was currently in the hands of Godbard and Brightstone.
The two masters were working on it, reforging and enhancing the blade with new materials and enchantments that would make it strong enough to face the enemies he would meet in the future.
At the moment, Rygar carried only Watermirror, for Nighthunter was no longer fit for his current strength—using it would condemn it to destruction.
Watermirror, the silver blade, retained the same appearance as a year ago: thin, mirror-like, with a clean, lethal sheen.
But now, it exuded a different pressure. Something dense, primitive, with the spirit of a Dragon.
The dwarf Brightstone had enchanted the sword with a Magic Stone extracted from a dragon even more powerful than the mutant used to enhance Tsukikage.
Upon drawing the blade from its sheath, Rygar felt his connection and control over his mana increase exponentially.
Watermirror's ability had considerably accelerated his training, both in Magic and in Touki.
And now that the sword also functioned as a casting rod, he felt as if it were an extension of his own nerves.
Lightning began to gather around his body.
In the sky above the mountains, clouds started to spiral, dark and charged with energy.
Lightning crackled irregularly between the peaks, as if nature itself were responding to his presence.
The dragon closing in did not slow its approach—the giant beast saw Rygar as a chunk of meat atop the mountain, ready to be devoured.
Rygar activated, in gradual sequence, the Holy Beast Battle Aura.
Lightning snakes coursed over his body, merging with his Touki, reinforcing every muscle, every tendon, every beat of his heart.
His hair became slightly more spiky, dancing with the electric energy, and his eyes shone even more intensely in gold. A smile of pure ecstasy grew on his face.
He was now fully enveloped by the Lightning Cloak and the Battle Aura. It was like armor made of lightning.
The Blue Dragon, now just a few meters away, roared ferociously. The other dragons, sensing the outcome, initially lost interest.
But then… a deafening thunderclap echoed across the mountain chain.
Rygar vanished.
Where Rygar once stood, only wind and destruction remained. A blue streak sliced through the air—as if a bolt of lightning had sprung from the mountains.
The mountain behind him was split in half by a luminous blue slash. The attacking dragon didn't even have time to react.
Its head and body were separated into two horizontal segments, its body cut from jaw to tail. Guts, bones, and blood arched through the air, falling like a grotesque rain over the valleys.
The two parts of the creature collided with the mountains, sending rocks and blood flying in all directions.
The silence lasted less than a second.
And then, chaos.
The Blue Dragons erupted in collective fury. The smell of blood from one of their own awakened a brutal, savage instinct.
Now they knew that what had invaded their territory was not just another prey—it was a real threat. A rare dragon killer.
Rygar was already in motion.
He moved so fast that, in his perception, time seemed to slow down.
The Lightning Cloak enhanced his senses and speed to levels beyond legend.
The Secret Technique Wild Light, now infused with Lightning Magic, placed him among the fastest beings in existence since the creation of the Six-Faced World.
The amount of mana required to maintain that concentration of lightning was enormous. But Rygar never worried much about that. His magical reserves were among the largest in the world.
He danced through the mountains like a Thunder God.
With each movement, a Blue Dragon was torn apart. Clean, deep cuts that severed titanic bones and muscles as if they were paper.
Watermirror's blade left trails of flaming blood in its wake. The beasts' bodies fell from heights, shredding against rocks and cliffs.
Some dragons fled into the air, trying to escape his trail of death. Others retaliated violently. Flame breaths ignited and destroyed mountains. Massive claws struck rocks, opening craters.
But none of those attacks reached Rygar.
He was untouchable.
He was like a reaper. Every strike was lethal.
With a flick of his sword, Rygar launched Lightning Spears at his targets—which pierced draconic scales like needles of light.
At other times, a massive devastating Flame Slash cut through mountainsides and caused entire slopes to collapse under pressure.
The land seemed to respond to his presence. The mountain peaks reshaped themselves almost symbiotically, creating passages, platforms, and corridors as he advanced.
It was as if the world conspired to aid him.
The battle continued in this manner, a disaster for the Blue Dragons, but for Rygar, it wasn't truly a fight—it was training.
The three strongest Dragons charged with aggression and fury—one from below, another from above, and the third leaping from a rocky hill.
They were enormous, their blue scales vibrating with power.
But Rygar moved before any of them could even get close. His body reacted instinctively, activating Instant Light Flow without thought.
With a single strike, his blade cut, and from it burst a white explosion of light.
A white-silver mana blade slashed through the air instantaneously, decapitating the colossal Blue Dragon charging at him.
Dark-blue blood gushed like a fountain, staining the already burned ground.
Rygar then stepped into the air, as if an invisible platform supported his weight. And he vanished again.
It was as if he were above the world's laws.
With another light leap, he appeared before the second Dragon, slicing it with a vertical strike so clean that the monster was cut in half before it even felt pain.
The third Dragon didn't even have time to turn.
A Vacuum Cannon fired into its chest, piercing the air with a hollow, explosive sound, ripping its heart out and blowing mountains in the background apart for hundreds of meters.
Its body fell with a thud that made the ground tremble.
The death of the three Elders was enough to alert the remaining Dragons.
Even the younger, more brainless ones understood something essential: the being before them was at the top of the food chain. He was a predator above them.
None of them had felt that in a long time. Some, older, hadn't seen anything like it in the past hundreds of years. Others, younger, had never seen anyone like it.
But all felt the same fear.
For Rygar, the most fun part was about to begin.
The hunt.
Blue Dragons of all sizes began to fly in different directions, trying to escape as best they could. But that only fueled Rygar's excitement.
He charged.
With his speed, he pursued them relentlessly. Even the Blue Dragons, known as the best flyers in this world, could not escape.
Their flying techniques, their aerodynamic bodies, their wings with Gravity Fields made by Gravity Magic—none of it mattered.
Against the Beast God, they could only delay the inevitable.
Seconds, maybe minutes. That was all they could buy.
From the sky, lightning spears fell like divine judgments, striking their targets mercilessly. Earth Spears rose from the ground, impaling the bodies of those trying to flee underground.
In some cases, the very air seemed heavier, as if gravity brutally increased only around a specific Dragon—forcing it to the ground with the sound of bones snapping.
It was as if the world had decided it was their time to go.
Dragons tens of meters long, who had once been Kings of their domain, were reduced to mere warm-up for the Apocalypse Beast, Rygar Adoldia.
---
Against the devastated landscape, the now relaxed Rygar sat atop the still-warm corpse of a huge Blue Dragon.
His black Sword Sanctuary mantle billowed in the cold mountain wind, accompanying the gentle sway of his long silver hair tied in a ponytail.
His eyes were calm.
But all around him was destruction.
Smoldering craters. Split mountains. Evaporating blood. A field of death.
In his hands, Rygar concentrated absolute focus on manipulating Gravity, trying to compress it to the maximum.
As always, when he wasn't with his family, he used every moment to train—to become stronger.
In front of him, arranged like a macabre little treasure, were about twenty Blue Dragon Eggs. Large and hard as stone, but still brimming with life energy.
Rygar watched them in silence.
Then, a familiar presence crossed the limits of his perception.
A silhouette appeared among the distant mountains.
Running between the rocks, a huge ebony-furred wolf advanced with agility, and riding it was a red-haired dwarf.
A patchy, still-short and sparse beard was beginning to grow on the youth.
Geri and Rufus had arrived.
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