"Embrace "new life," Pollux." Castorice whispered. The words themselves held no particular significance; she was simply reciting her ultimate skill activation line from the game, hoping it would make her sound cooler.
Despite her awkwardness wielding the scythe in actual combat, Castorice had mentally rehearsed and physically practiced the motion of tearing space behind her countless times. She couldn't afford to fumble when the time came to unleash her ultimate—imagine the embarrassment of awkwardly slashing at thin air!
At that moment, before the eyes of Black Hand, Aisha, Kaia, and all the Death Priests, a small rift appeared in the space behind Castorice. Purple energy surged outward from the fissure, radiating a chillingly terrifying aura that pierced their hearts.
In the next instant, two colossal claws emerged from the rift, gripping either side as if tearing a flimsy sheet of paper. With brutal force, they ripped the rift wide open!
Immediately afterward, a colossal dragon's head emerged from the spatial rift. Her immense size made it impossible for her to fully pass through, even with the forcibly torn-open fissure, and completely materialize into the material world.
Pollux braced her claws against the edges of the rift, craning her neck to stare intently at the Black Hand floating in the air. She opened her mouth, paused for a few seconds, and then unleashed a thunderous roar: "ROAR!!!"
Splat! At that very moment, the Little Round Sparrow that had been flitting around Castorice's head suddenly crashed onto her head, belly up and motionless, appearing utterly lifeless.
In reality, Pollux had simply withdrawn her consciousness back into her true form.
Notably, Castorice had sensed that Pollux's initial roar had sounded like she was trying to chirp, "Cheep!" But due to her vastly different anatomy and vocal organs, the chirp failed to materialize. Only then did Pollux consciously switch to a proper dragon's roar.
Castorice took a deep breath, silently relieved that Pollux's failed chirp hadn't succeeded. That would have been so embarrassing.
Naturally, no one else noticed this minor detail. They were all stunned by the sudden appearance of the colossal dragon.
Black Hand was completely dumbfounded. "Wh-what the hell is that thing?!"
In this world, dragons weren't mythical creatures confined to legends. You could easily stumble upon one while exploring a remote mountain range, and anyone determined to find a dragon would undoubtedly succeed.
However, the power gap between dragons was immense. For instance, the weakest of the species, the White Dragon, could be defeated by a well-prepared team of four Gold-tier adventurers.
Beyond them lay the Green, Blue, Black, and Red Dragons, each progressively stronger. The mightiest of them all, the Red Dragon, could single-handedly annihilate a small nation.
Apart from color, a dragon's age was a primary factor in its strength. It was even possible for a White Dragon that had lived for thousands of years to surpass the power of an ordinary Red Dragon.
Regardless, Black Hand had never heard of a dragon capable of tearing through space with its claws! And why was this one purple? That color didn't exist among the Five-Colored Dragons!
At that moment, Castorice gently raised her small hand, pointed at the Black Hand floating in the air, and commanded, "Pollux, blast him!"
The Black Hand was utterly bewildered. "???"
He glanced down at the Little Round Sparrow lying belly-up on Castorice's head, feigning death, then back at the colossal dragon glaring menacingly from the spatial rift. Are you seriously telling me these two are the same thing?
Are you fucking kidding me?
The Black Hand had braced himself for a kamikaze attack from the Little Round Sparrow, but instead, he was about to face the Death Dragon's breath.
Upon receiving the command, visible crimson energy surged beneath Pollux's purple scales, converging at her throat.
BOOM!!!
A torrent of raging flames erupted, cascading like a celestial river towards the Black Hand.
Normally, a red dragon's breath would be a cone of searing fire, visually similar to Uchiha Madara's Great Fire Annihilation from Naruto. But the Death Dragon's breath was different—a concentrated beam of flame, far more potent than any ordinary dragon's breath.
"Damn it!" Black Hand cursed, the electric light crackling around him intensifying, granting him unparalleled speed. Even so, he barely managed to evade Pollux's fiery breath.
Simultaneously, the accumulated lightning from the heavens crashed down—a massive pillar of electricity over ten meters in diameter collided with Pollux's breath. The lightning held for less than a breath before the scorching flames devoured it completely, surging upward to blast a gaping hole through the dark storm clouds.
While the rest of Chaos City remained shrouded in gloom, the area around the Mage Tower suddenly cleared. Sunlight streamed through the gap Pollux had created, bathing the battlefield in golden light.
"This... is unbelievable," Kaia murmured, holding up his hand to feel the warmth of the sun on his palm, his face etched with awe. He glanced at Pollux behind Castorice. "That little bird... is actually this powerful?!"
Aisha frowned slightly, turning to Kaia. "Ha? Are you saying you didn't believe me when I told you how mighty Lord Pollux is?"
Kaia, ever the diplomat, quickly clarified, "No, what I meant was, I never imagined that bird would turn out to be a dragon."
Aisha nodded in agreement. "Indeed, I never expected Lord Pollux to be so enormous!"
But it wasn't just the dragon aspect that surprised them. Kaia's gaze fell on Pollux's claws gripping the spatial rift and the eerie aura seeping from the other side. "This... is the Underworld?"
A living dragon residing in the Underworld? Could such a creature truly exist?
Their world had Bone Dragons—the reanimated corpses of dragons raised by necromancers. But even Bone Dragons couldn't survive in the Underworld.
How, then, had this living, flesh-and-blood dragon managed to do it?
The battle continued unabated. Pollux's first breath attack had missed, but without even pausing for breath, she unleashed a second, aiming it at the Black Hand hovering in the air.
For anyone else, such a powerful "light cannon" attack would be considered a devastating ultimate ability. Even for other dragons, breath attacks were mid-tier Skills with cooldowns of ten seconds or more. But Pollux was different; this "light cannon breath" might as well have been her basic attack.
"Boom!!!"
"Are you kidding me? Not again!"
Black Hand felt a chill run down his spine as the beam of light hurtled toward him. His painstakingly charged attack hadn't even lasted a second, and his opponent was spamming these blasts? "What's the point of even fighting?!"
Meanwhile, on the fourth floor of the Mage Tower, Brother Hawen shakily got to his feet. Miraculously, he had survived. Thinking he was safe, he had emerged from his Elastic Sphere to watch Black Hand's brutal clash with Aisha. Terrified, he had immediately curled into a fetal position, clutching his head and scrambling into a corner.
Then came Black Hand's wide-area electric shock, forcing all the priests to flee. Brother Hawen had been caught in the blast radius, but trapped among the priests, he had nowhere to run. He had taken the full brunt of the attack.
His afro had been instantly scorched, and his body bore severe burn-like marks, but at least he was still breathing.
Brother Hawen rubbed his forehead, replaying the events in his mind. "So, that guy who showed up earlier was the Black Hand Boss?"
"He scared off all the priests with just one move! That's insane!"
"Heh heh, those damn priests... let's see how you deal with this now!"
Just as Brother Hawen excitedly rushed to the window, eager to witness his boss utterly annihilate the enemy, the first thing he saw was a massive beam of flame soaring into the sky.
Brother Hawen: "???"
Wait, what the hell is that?
He rubbed his eyes and looked down again, only to see half of an impossibly colossal purple dragon.
Brother Hawen's jaw dropped wide enough to swallow a goose egg whole. He wasn't alone; everyone in Chaos City had witnessed the two beams of magical energy blasting skyward. The first tore a gaping hole in the dark clouds, while the second swept across the sky as it fired, cleaving the city's cloud cover in half!
But Brother Hawen, being closest, had the clearest view. "This... Did I somehow open the wrong window? Is this window enchanted with Illusion Magic?"
He frantically darted to another window, only to see the same surreal spectacle. At that moment, he even saw a charred corpse clutching a blue staff plummet from the sky, landing with a sickening splat on the ground.
"Brother Hawen!"
"We're done for! The Boss is dead!"
He immediately tried to flee, but his legs were shaking like sieves, completely immobilized. "Stop! Stop fucking shaking! Just move already!"
Outside the Mage Tower, Castorice slowly approached the charred corpse that had fallen from the sky, a hint of surprise on her face. How could anyone survive a direct hit from Pollux's breath and remain intact? She had expected nothing but ashes.
Bending down, she picked up the staff that was still crackling with blue electricity. The moment she touched it, the staff zapped her a few times with a series of crackling shocks, like static electricity from a winter sweater. It stung slightly, but the effect was minimal.
Is this the Sorcerer's Divine Artifact? Castorice examined it closely. According to Black Hand, the staff seemed to have an energy limit and needed recharging.
As for its function, it appeared to control lightning. Despite the class mismatch—Black Hand was a Rogue—his ability to forcefully activate the weapon proved its exceptional versatility, much like a Bard's Travel Book, usable by anyone.
Castorice couldn't help but feel that the Divine Artifact's effect was somewhat underwhelming.
Summoning a vast, city-encompassing storm cloud in the blink of an eye seemed impressive at first glance. But compared to the Travel Book, which could recreate the exact same scene simply by recording a cloudy day, the staff's capabilities paled in comparison.
Anything the staff could do, the Travel Book could also accomplish. Yet the Travel Book could do so much more that the staff couldn't.
Despite her doubts, the battle was over. Castorice turned to Pollux behind her and extended her right hand. Pollux obediently lowered her massive head to nuzzle Castorice's small hand.
"Thank you for your hard work, Pollux," Castorice said. "Go back to the Underworld and rest well."
The sight of a petite, adorable young girl and a fearsome, grotesque dragon cuddling so harmoniously together created a striking contrast.
Pollux withdrew her claws from the spatial rift and retreated entirely into the Underworld. The rift slowly closed, healing until it vanished completely.
Aisha's eyes sparkled with adoration as she rushed to Castorice's side. "As expected of the Holy Maiden! Your fighting style was so cool!"
Fighting style?
Castorice was momentarily taken aback. Didn't Pollux do all the fighting? She quickly realized Aisha must be referring to the moment she had cleaved through space to summon Pollux.
Well, of course it looked cool, she thought. I've been practicing that move specifically.
Aisha continued, "And Pollux was amazing too!"
Pollux, whose consciousness had partially returned to his Little Round Sparrow form, perched atop Castorice's head, cocking his tiny head as if to say, Keep the compliments coming!
"And finding a Divine Artifact! That's wonderful!" Aisha exclaimed. "It's just a shame Black Hand is dead. We could have interrogated him for more information."
They wondered where Black Hand had obtained the staff and if he knew anything about other Divine Artifacts.
Kaia approached them. "It's alright. We can search the Mage Tower more thoroughly. We might find something else."
Castorice nodded. Now that Black Hand was dead, the tower was theoretically theirs, right?
But as the trio turned back to face the Mage Tower, they noticed it was gradually becoming transparent, like a painting slowly losing its colors. The once vibrant masterpiece faded into a blank canvas.
In mere seconds, the entire Mage Tower vanished from their sight.
Instantly, all the remaining Black Hand goons inside the tower lost their footing. Screaming in terror, they plummeted from the sky like dumplings falling into boiling water.
"This..." Aisha stammered, stunned. "Divine Concealment? How is that possible?!"