Translator: CinderTL
Roland narrowly dodged another silent, winding Shadow Spider Silk with a desperate side-slide.
After stabilizing his footing, his chest heaved violently, his heavy gasps audible even amidst the chaotic battlefield. The high-load operation of his dragon transformation state, combined with his extreme mental strain, was rapidly draining his physical and spiritual energy.
Yet, under the crushing pressure of this life-or-death crisis, his mind felt as clear as if it had been plunged into ice water. A question, previously obscured by the divine pressure and the relentless onslaught, now surfaced with startling clarity.
The being calling itself Corellon... its very essence truly contains a divinity that makes one tremble. Its status is incomparably high...
But the actual destructive power it's currently displaying...
Roland rapidly analyzed the situation as he relied on the superhuman reflexes and speed of his dragon transformation to weave through and parry a barrage of emerald arrows, force field ripples, acid missiles, and various rule-based interferences.
"...It's absolutely not at the level of a god's power, the kind that could destroy heaven and earth at will!"
Though he had never witnessed a god fighting at full strength, both his intuition and logic told him that if this were the complete form of the Great God of the Elves, even a casual strike would be impossible for him to block or even dodge.
Her spell combinations were indeed exquisitely refined, like the highest form of art, maximizing the effects of every low- and mid-tier spell to create perfect tactical suppression.
But if one were to set aside those troublesome rule fragments and judge solely by the pure power of the spells themselves...
Clang!
The Radiant Moon Longsword precisely parried an emerald arrow imbued with a "Sure-Hit" effect. The natural power carried by the arrow left his arm slightly numb, but that was all.
His feet shifted like a phantom as a searing beam of light grazed his temple, singeing a few strands of hair.
"...It's simply not enough to pose a lethal threat to my dragon-transformed body and Battle Qi defense!"
"What's truly tying my hands and making this a desperate struggle are those rule fragments mixed into the attacks. This power, which touches upon the fundamental laws of the world, is the real problem!"
Swish!
Another sword strike. Blood-red Battle Qi erupted, forcibly cleaving apart a force field ripple that sought to distort the space around him.
Roland's eyes narrowed slightly amidst the rain of spellfire.
A glint of resolve flashed within his gilded vertical pupils.
Since that's the case... instead of letting these endless harassing attacks and rule interferences drain my strength, I might as well...
Gamble it all!
His mind made up, Roland ceased his constant dodging and parrying.
He took a sharp breath, as if trying to inhale all the air around him. Then, his feet took root, planting him firmly on the ravaged ground. He gripped the hilt of the Radiant Moon Longsword with both hands, holding it vertically before him.
Vrrr—!
The Primal Core within his body surged to an unprecedented power.
The surging Dragon Blood and pure Battle Qi were no longer merely sustaining his dragon transformation and defense. Instead, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, they converged madly toward his arms and the Radiant Moon Longsword.
Visibly, blood-red Battle Qi, boiling like magma, steamed from every pore of his body, then wrapped around the blade of the Radiant Moon as if drawn by a powerful attraction.
The sword began to hum violently, as if unable to contain this overwhelming power. The air around the blade even distorted and ionized from the highly condensed energy, emitting faint crackles.
A destructive aura, far purer, more domineering, and more concentrated than any moment before, began to slowly rise and coalesce around Roland.
Roland lowered his eyes, glancing at the longsword in his hand.
The once silver-bright blade of the Radiant Moon Sword was now completely drenched in the surging blood-colored Battle Qi, transforming into a blood-red blade that seemed forged from solidified blood and boiling energy.
The sword hummed and trembled incessantly, as if in ecstasy, yet also as if in lament, nearly breaking free from his control.
"A pity."
Seeing this, a hint of helplessness crossed Roland's heart.
"Though I've awakened the Primal Core and gained a nearly infinite source of energy, my control over Battle Qi is still far too clumsy..."
As his thoughts raced, Corellon's next wave of attacks was already upon him.
There was no time to hesitate, no room to retreat.
The dragon-transformed muscles on Roland's arms swelled like coiled steel cables, tightening inch by inch as he channeled all his strength and his boiling, blood-colored Battle Qi into his limbs.
The next moment, he let out a guttural, tearing roar.
He swung the Blood-Colored Radiant Moon—a blade that felt as heavy as a mountain—downward in the most primal, most brutal strike.
BOOM!
It was no longer the sound of a blade cutting the wind, but the thunderous roar of a blood-red river bursting its banks.
A crescent of blood-red sword qi, several meters wide and incredibly dense, surged from the blade like an unleashed primordial beast.
Wherever the sword qi passed, the ground was plowed into a bottomless, charred trench. The earth and rock on either side weren't merely pushed aside—they were annihilated, evaporated by the savage energy.
The air filled with the pungent stench of sulfur and scorched earth.
Arrows, spider silk, Magic Missiles...
Every attack Corellon unleashed melted away instantly under the sword qi's onslaught, like ice and snow exposed to direct sunlight.
Finally, the blood-colored sword qi slammed heavily into the force field web overhead.
The power of rules, representing "Absolute Imprisonment," clashed violently with the blood-colored battle qi, producing a tooth-grinding screech like twisting metal.
The force field web warped and deformed wildly before tearing apart after a mere instant, ripped open by the sword qi like a piece of silk.
The remaining sword qi, still unstoppable in its momentum, surged forward, cleaving through several distant, miraculously intact giant trees. Their trunks were severed with mirror-smooth cuts before they crashed down with a thunderous roar.
As for the most lethal Disintegrate beam, it had been left completely isolated, stripped of its cover and support after all other attacks were instantly annihilated by the blood-colored sword qi.
Faced with this lone beam, Roland didn't even need to dodge.
He merely tilted his head slightly. The gray-green beam, capable of erasing existence itself, grazed his ear and vanished into the darkness behind him.
Without glancing to see Corellon's reaction to the earth-shattering strike, Roland gritted his teeth against the tearing pain and numbness in his right arm from the excessive force, and thrust his palm high into the air.
Within his cold, amber slitted pupils, a more blinding flash of lightning, interwoven with silver-blue and blood-red, suddenly erupted.
Dragon Breath !
This was different from the first time, when it had burst forth in a moment of desperation, nearly draining his entire strength and vitality.
Though his body had far from fully recovered from the terrible strain of the previous Dragon Breath —meaning the amount of lightning he could now channel was far less, and its power greatly reduced—the experience of that first, agonizing release had left his bloodline remembering the path of that power. The guidance and condensation of energy had become exceptionally smooth and swift.
Sizzle!
The silent gathering of energy was replaced by the piercing crackle of electricity.
Countless fine, silver-blue arcs of lightning, like summoned mad serpents, instantly erupted from the gaps in the Dark Gold Dragon Scales covering his body, converging frantically upon his raised right arm.
The blood-colored battle qi did not dissipate. Instead, it intertwined and coiled with the newly awakened lightning, staining the arcs dancing around the blade with an ominous crimson glow.
The air grew thick with the sharp scent of ozone. A sudden gale whipped outward from Roland, billowing his tattered robes and tossing his blood-streaked hair. Above him, the very light began to warp and dim, as if a miniature supercell were coalescing in the sky at a visible speed.
The entire process had completed the moment he raised his sword—so fast it defied imagination. Gone was the sluggish buildup of the first attack, which had left him vulnerable to interruption.
Though this hastily condensed Dragon Breath lacked its full power, it gained its strength from surprise, striking as swift as a thunderclap.
The tip of the Radiant Moon Sword now served as a lightning rod.
A sphere of highly compressed ball lightning—a roiling core of silver-blue and crimson energy—had fully formed. It pulsed with a bone-chilling hum and an aura of pure destruction, poised to unleash.
As the highly compressed ball lightning, a swirling vortex of silver-blue and blood-red, coalesced at the tip of Roland's sword, it radiated an aura of pure, savage destruction.
For the first time, a flicker of genuine emotion—a ripple of surprise, perhaps even... approval—stirred within Corellon's starry eyes, which had hitherto remained a mask of transcendent indifference.
"Thunderbolt power from the ancient dragonborn bloodline... Impressive."
His voice remained steady, as if he were appraising a work of art. Yet, a closer look revealed a microscopic stutter in the divine radiance flowing around him, and his flawless posture tensed ever so slightly.
Clearly, this Dragon Breath —with its astonishingly fast condensation and supreme essence—was no longer something he could utterly ignore.
Roland paid no heed to Corellon's assessment.
He had poured every shred of his spirit, will, and remaining strength into this single strike.
"HRAAAAH!"
With a roar that threatened to tear his throat, Roland hurled his raised right arm forward.
The ball lightning tore free from the sword's tip.
It didn't fly in a straight line. Instead, it surged forward like a sentient storm core, dragging a wake of wildly dancing arcs of electricity. With a shriek that threatened to annihilate all in its path, it roared toward Corellon.
As Roland unleashed this strike, pouring every ounce of his remaining strength into it, the boiling blood-colored battle qi and draconic features that had wreathed his body receded like a rapidly ebbing tide.
A wave of profound exhaustion instantly crashed over him, leaving him so weak he could barely stand. He leaned heavily on the Radiant Moon Longsword, using it as a crutch to keep from collapsing.
His chest heaved violently as he gasped for air, the simple act of lifting an arm now an agonizing struggle.
Faced with the roaring thunderbolt, Corellon finally ceased relying solely on spell combinations and the interference of his divine authority.
He pressed his hands outward, and layers of Divine Barriers, each imbued with different rules, materialized instantly.
The emerald green of Life's Protection, the silver-white of the Order Bastion, the deep gloom of the Shadow Veil...
Layer upon layer, they formed the most impenetrable of shields.
BOOM!
The ball lightning slammed into the composite Divine Barrier!
There was no instantaneous explosion. Instead, the two forces locked in a suffocating stalemate.
In that moment, sound seemed to lose all its power.
The violent silver-blue and crimson lightning, like countless maddened pythons, tore and eroded the layers of the barrier, unleashing a deafening, endless roar.
The Divine Barrier fluctuated and twisted violently, its light flickering erratically.
Tiny rule fragments were continuously torn apart and vaporized by the lightning, but new divine power surged from Corellon's body, instantly repairing the defense.
For a moment, lightning and divine radiance clashed and intertwined. The resulting shockwaves rippled outward, carving several more feet off the ground.
Corellon's suspended figure drifted slightly backward under the impact of the lightning.
Though the Divine Barrier before him had not been breached, it rippled like a lake struck by a giant stone, clearly under immense strain.
Just as the energy clash reached its peak, with the two forces grinding against each other in a delicate balance—
Shu—!
A piercingly sharp sound tore through the air.
It was an arrow.
The arrow glowed with a pure, vibrant emerald green, as if forged from the very essence of nature's purest energy.
It tore through the air like a teleporting strike, ignoring the chaotic energy turbulence in its path. With pinpoint accuracy, it shot straight for the most unstable node of Corellon's Divine Barrier, where the impact of the [Dragon Breath] was most violent.
The timing was flawless, the angle utterly inconceivable.
Crack!
A faint yet distinct sound of shattering echoed directly into the soul.
The balance was broken.
The next instant, the ball lightning, no longer held back by the barrier, unleashed its accumulated, terrifying energy in a cataclysmic eruption.
BOOM!
An unprecedented roar drowned out all other sounds.
The blindingly bright lightning, like a supernova, instantly engulfed Corellon's figure. Endless arcs of electricity surged in all directions, transforming the surrounding space into a pure purgatory of lightning.
It seemed as if space itself was warping and fracturing under the extreme light and energy.
(End of the Chapter)
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