"RO-ROAAAAAR—!"
The blood inside the dragon's body began to boil.
Under normal circumstances, the dragon could have suppressed such a disturbance in moments.
But under the current conditions, it became a death sentence.
The dragon's body stiffened for a brief instant.
It failed to mobilise its magic in time to counter the water spear.
That brief moment was all it took.
The water spear successfully cut through the dragon's hide and embedded itself deep within its neck.
As it merged with the dragon's blood, vast quantities of blood were absorbed into the spear, staining it crimson and accelerating its cutting speed.
Squelch!
In the next instant, the spear pierced straight through the dragon's neck, pinning it to the ground.
Rhys spread his hands apart.
The spear obediently split into two and began cutting horizontally through the wound from both sides.
The dragon struggled violently.
Each movement smashed craters nearly a hundred metres deep into the earth. Dust shot into the sky, and the tremors could be felt more than a hundred kilometres away.
But its struggle was futile.
The blood-red spears slowly and relentlessly sliced through its neck.
Eventually, the mountain-sized dragon was completely decapitated.
And when its head fell, its life came to an end as well.
"It seems this thing never mastered the true essence of a Domain," Rhys said, shaking his head. "A massive body alone is useless. In battles between top-tier opponents, size doesn't provide as much of an advantage as people think."
As the dragon died, Rhys noticed countless earth-yellow points of light emerging from its body.
He immediately understood that these were probably the Authorities that Rowena had mentioned.
The moment they left the dragon's body, the points of light attempted to flee at incredible speed. However, Rhys's Domain already covered the entire area.
How could he possibly let them escape?
He manipulated the power of his Domain, captured every last Authority from the dragon's body, and in an instant refined them into a solid yellow sphere.
"Interesting. A physical manifestation of a Domain?"
Rhys examined the small yellow sphere floating before him. He very much wanted to study it in detail, but he also noticed the meteorite rapidly approaching overhead.
At this point, Rhys could still destroy it with ease.
But out of scientific curiosity, he chose not to.
Instead, he Apparated away.
Several dozen seconds later, the meteorite struck the earth with unstoppable force.
A tremendous explosion erupted.
BOOOM!
The immense heat generated by the impact melted the corpse of the fallen dragon and unleashed its energy across the surface of the world.
The entire alchemical world felt the shockwave.
"What happened?"
"What's going on?"
The contestants raised their heads in confusion, unable to understand what was happening.
Most of them had only just figured out where they were.
A few had only recently dealt with the problems and dangers they had encountered immediately after arriving.
Now, they were suddenly confronted with this catastrophe.
For a moment, they had no idea how to react.
Soon afterwards, a mushroom cloud rose from the site of the impact. The dust thrown into the air rapidly occupied the sky and spread outward with the speed of a storm.
Rhys, who had already retreated to a safe distance, looked at his "masterpiece" and smiled.
According to Muggle records, the dust would soon spread across the entire sky, block out the sunlight, and trigger a mass extinction event.
He was curious to see what effect a meteor impact would have in a world where magic existed.
Only a few minutes passed before Rhys raised an eyebrow.
The alchemical world's response had arrived.
One figure after another appeared at the impact site.
If any natives of this world had recognised them, they would probably have been shocked to the point of paralysis.
Every one of them was a legendary figure renowned throughout the world: legendary alchemists, heroes, high priests, court archmages...
They stared at the devastation caused by the meteorite with grave expressions.
"The Starfall Dragon King is dead," one of them said.
Unlike the four-person party, who knew nothing about what had actually happened in the Forest of Dragons, the people who had arrived here all knew that the Forest of Dragons was the resting place of the ancient Dragon King, "Starfall."
"Who did this? It was an ancient immortal creature that had survived three eras..."
"How should I know?" The first speaker spread his hands, indicating that he was equally bewildered.
"Although the meteorite impact has made a complete mess of the area, it's still possible to sense very strong traces of water-element magic," another person began analysing the scene. "I have no idea which master of water magic did this. However, what concerns me more is where the Dragon King's Authority went after its death."
As soon as he said this, everyone realised what was wrong.
Not a single trace of the Dragon King's earth-element Authority remained.
That was highly abnormal.
If the mysterious powerhouse had truly taken it, then that person's strength was even more terrifying than they had imagined.
Did someone capable of killing the Starfall Dragon King and stripping away all of its Authority really exist in this world?
After all, the Dragon King had survived three world-ending catastrophes and was considered an invincible monster.
"Regardless, we should first clean up the mess that person left behind." A man wearing knight's armour pointed at the mushroom cloud of smoke and dust overhead. "If we allow this to continue, it will cause a terrible disaster."
"Agreed."
"I concur."
"That makes sense."
His words were met with unanimous approval.
"I'm sorry, but could you perhaps not do that?"
A voice suddenly rang out, abruptly shattering the atmosphere of unity.
Everyone: ???
They turned towards the source of the voice and discovered that the speaker was a completely unfamiliar face.
"You are—"
The armoured knight was about to ask who the man was and why he opposed their proposal.
But before he could finish speaking, the blood inside his body began to boil.
In the next instant, a cloud of blood exploded from his body.
The same thing happened to everyone around him.
More than ten clouds of blood burst open in the air like fireworks.
Afterwards, one shrivelled corpse after another fell from the sky and disappeared into the sea of flames below, leaving no trace behind.
With a casual wave of his hand, Rhys collected more than a dozen differently coloured points of light.
Then he looked at the three people who remained suspended in the air, struggling to stay upright and who had not been killed instantly by him.
"Those who weren't qualified to speak with me have already left."
He smiled slightly.
"Now then, do the three of you have any questions?"
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI