novelFinal Battle
| ← Ch.103 | Ch.105 → |
This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.
'C-can't win... but if I lose, papa would become worse. What should Baolilong do?'
Baolilong's eyes were wet, and tears were threatening to fall. No matter how hard it tried to bomb, old papa did not seem to be afraid.
'I can't win, but I have to win. What do I do?' Baolilong felt helpless, and it called out to Liola in its heart. If Liola was right here, Baolilong would have rushed into papa's arms.
'Papa! Why are you still sleeping? Baolilong misses you very much. '
Having sensed Baolilong stopping its attacks, Miluo almost seemed unhappy. Suddenly, a few black rays... no! They might have been black "rays" to the giant Miluo, but to others such as Kaiser, they were practically "black pillars." The pillars erupted from the ground and shot straight up into the sky. From the ground, the pillars looked endless, as though it was connecting the ground to sky.
Baolilong was surprised by the sudden attack, and immediately dodged to the side. However, the black pillars from the ground became more and more numerous, and they did not seem to go away after they were shot. Gradually, more and more pillars were shot out, and it became harder and harder for Baolilong to fly around them.
Baolilong was mad!
It suddenly spit out lightning towards the black pillar. However, not only did the pillar not buckle under the lightning, but because Baolilong diverted its attention to attack the pillar, another pillar slammed right into it. The momentum sent Baolilong flying, landing on yet another pillar. Painful Dragon roars continuously emitted from his mouth.
"Baolilong!" Purity covered her mouth, with sympathy filling her eyes.
'It hurts! Papa!'
The space became more and more narrow. Even for Baolilong, whose speed and reaction time were first class, it was still having trouble. In addition, having rammed into pillars, its back and left wing were both in pain, and its flying became slightly unstable.
With another carelessness, Baolilong suffered the same fate again, and it was worse this time: because the distance between pillars had decreased, the moment Baolilong scrape a pillar, its flight path had been altered slightly, causing it to run into another pillar. Even after barely returning to a stable fight, it had no time to dodge another pillar from the ground.
Before long, Baolilong's snow-white body was full of wounds, and blue blood frequently dripped down while it flew in the air, along with painful roars often coming out of its throat.
"Stop! Hurry and stop!" Purity yelled loudly at Miluo, "It still is a little child, and it's even your child. Stop hurting it!"
In the end, Baolilong really did seem to lose its ability to reason from the pain. It saw the countless number of pillars around it, and with a dizzy head, it thought there was nowhere to go... Its wings were hurting, and it wanted to stop flying. Baolilong looked around, and found a blackish place where there was no pillars. He happily flew over, landed on the place, and opened its wings happily to rest.
All the audiences had wide open dropped jaws... H-how could it go and land on Miluo's back? That's basically delivering victory to Miluo.
Miluo paused, and became infuriated; he viewed Baolilong landing on his back as an act of intentional provocation. Black smoke emitted from the giant body, and Baolilong was caught by the viscous air. It desperately flapped its wings to try to leave this terrifying place, but the black smoke held it in place. Even being the Sacred White Dragon, Baolilong seemed to be almost suffocating thanks to this black aura.
'No! It's scary! Papa—'
Baolilong desperately called out to Liola in its heart...
* * *
Daylight was in the room, reading the book he got from the royal library, when he suddenly received a communication via telepathy from Flames.
'Master, its Highness, Baolilong, can't hang on anymore, it's already... impossible to win. '
The book suddenly slipped out of Daylight's hands and fell on the ground. Sitting quietly on the side, Mizerui seemed rather calm; he asked lightly, "Lost?"
"Mhm." Daylight, who saw him being extremely calm, thought he had already decided to take Liola away, so he also became calmer. Although he had always been firm about not lying and follow through promises... this time, however, even he was in favor of Liola running away. Not only because the match unfair to begin with, but also because Liola must eat the Heart of the Dragon Emperor if they lose, and he would no longer be himself. As his companion, Daylight did not want to see him ending up like that.
"Hurry and take him away." Daylight urged, unsure of why Mizerui was still sitting still; would it not be better to take Liola away as soon as possible?
"It's impossible."
Daylight suddenly glared at Mizerui. Was it really him who said that? Daylight tried to ask, "What did you say?"
Mizerui stood up slowly, and walked to the bed where Liola lay, and watched the person sound asleep on the bed. He started to explain, "Ever since last night, I've been trying, but I don't know what the Dragon Emperor did to Liola. Although I can seem to teleport away, I cannot find a way to take Liola with me."
Hearing his explanation, Daylight began to panic. Then... what should they do? Were they really going to let Liola eat the Heart?
Mizerui took out a shiny dagger from underneath his robe. The expression on his face was extremely rigid, as though he did not act this way, and would not have the courage to do what he was about to do.
"I-isn't that Meinan's dagger?" Daylight looked suspiciously at the dagger, then, suddenly realizing something, he hurriedly pushed Mizerui aside, then stood between him and Liola. He roared, "What are you doing?!"
"This dagger was handed to me by Meinan personally." Mizerui stated calmly, "Kaiser said, instead of me using Magic to blow him into disfigured pieces, it is much cleaner to use a dagger. After all, there are still people waiting for Liola to come back; therefore, even if we cannot bring Liola back alive, we can at least keep him looking good."
"Kaiser and Meinan..." Daylight was deeply shocked, "They want to kill Liola?'
Mizerui was suddenly infuriated, for he had held it in for a long time. He roared, "Would you rather we kill Liola now?! Or let the Heart of the Dragon Emperor kill him, and use his body to hurt those he cares about?! You pick one then!"
Daylight's face also turned rigid. He thought about Caffey; after being controlled by the Heart, not only did he kill his wife and his Sacred White Dragon, he even murdered his own son... What would Liola do then? Of course, Liola did not have a wife, but he had a Sacred White Dragon who was basically his son, and he had his companions. If Liola was truly controlled by the Dragon Emperor, everyone who used to stand by his side would have no choice but oppose him. In the end, they would all either be killed by him, or kill him...
Daylight's always upright body suddenly collapsed, and instead it was now warped from tiredness. He reached out his hand towards Mizerui, and said, "Let me."
Mizerui hesitated a moment, but still handed the dagger to Daylight. Instead, he focused his attention on the surroundings, in order to prevent the Dragon Emperor from sending people to take Liola away immediately after winning the tournament.
Daylight turned around, facing Liola on the bed, and smiled bitterly, "Liola, I've never ever imagined it would be me who would end your life with my own hands. B-but if you're awake, you would definitely choose to end your life rather than eat the Heart of the Dragon Emperor... that has been what you were thinking since the beginning, isn't it?"
"As such, maybe it's best if I send you the rest of the way, so you wouldn't have to hide in a corner to commit suicide, and we won't even be able to find your corpse for a proper funeral." Daylight smiled lightly, and the dagger in his hand was raised suddenly. He carefully aimed it at where Liola's heart would be, hoping his companion could die without suffering any pain.
No matter how careful the aim might be, it should not take much time, but Daylight held the dagger up for quite some time. With his eyes overflowing with tears, Daylight closed his eyes turned his head, and swung his hand downward...
In that instant, a slender hand suddenly grabbed Daylight by the wrist. Since Daylight did not expect this, the dagger suddenly fell out of his hand.
"Liola?" Daylight was deep in shock. He did not expect Liola would wake up in this moment, but he was not worried Liola might misunderstand him. Instead, Daylight was worried Liola would not allow him to complete the euthanasia, and carry the weight of killing his own companion.
"Dragon Magic... I know it." Liola answered irrelevantly. He slowly got up from the bed, and said absent-mindedly, "I saw Lucifer's Dragon Magic..."
Daylight's eyes widened; Liola knew Dragon Magic? Then the match...
* * *
Baolilong was caught in the black smoke, and the pain it suffered was immense. Kaiser and others yelled several times to surrender, but Baolilong remained firm and cried that it would never surrender, no matter how painful.
"Baolilong!" Kaiser really wanted to slap himself. Why did he have to spell out everything to Baolilong before hand, resulting in it unwilling to give up? But now everyone could tell, there was no chance it could win, and prolonging this battle would only result in more pain and suffering.
"Baolilong, Purity beg of you; surrender, and stop fighting!" Purity cried out to it.
"No..." Baolilong also cried back. It did not want papa to become how he was before, no...
'Baolilong...'
Baolilong blinked its eyes. 'Papa? Are you awake?'
'Baolilong, listen to me. Focus all your power to your forehead, the marking of our bond. '
'Okay!' Baolilong agreed, and started to focus all the divine powers towards its forehead.
'It's not enough. Baolilong, don't be afraid, put all your powers to the mark. '
'But, ' Baolilong hesitated, 'I have to save power to stop old papa, otherwise Baolilong will be dragged into dark places. '
'I will protect you, don't be afraid. Do you trust me, Baolilong?'
'Mhm! Mhm! Baolilong trusts you. Papa is the best. '
Baolilong put every last bit of power towards the binding marks on its forehead, not even leaving enough strength to move its limbs. It firmly trusted Liola; had Baolilong been able to live without its heart beating, it might have even transferred that bit of strength towards the mark.
'It's enough. Now Baolilong, drop all your psychological barriers towards me...'
'What's a psychological barrier? Baolilong doesn't understand. '
'It's fine, I'm wrong. You never had your guards up towards me. The person who had it was always just me. '
But now, he would no longer have any guards towards it. Liola let go of all the walls he had in his heart. Baolilong was his Dragon, and even more like his child or his brother. It never had a single thought of malice towards him, and this little kid had trusted him without any reservation.
Only when there was no impedance between the Dragon and human, and their minds were completely connected, to the point where they can give their lives for one another, would it be possible to cast Dragon Magic. It was a Magic based on complete trust.
When the human was Dragon, and when the Dragon was human, miracle would happen!
Liola was still inside the room, and a blinding brightness emitted from his body, one unique to the Sacred White Dragons. Two different voices spoke out when he opened his mouth, "Ready?" He did not call Baolilong by its name, because by now, half of him was Baolilong.
Buried deep within the black smoke, Baolilong opened its mouth as well. Like Liola, two different voices could be heard, "Yes."
"Divine Lightning of the Heavens"
* * *
"What's going on?"
Meinan stared blankly at the sky. The entire sky seem to be emitting a faint gold light. Then, Baolilong suddenly gave an earthshaking roar from within in the black smoke. After the earth stopped shaking, Meinan suddenly had a bad feeling. He raised his head again to look at the sky, and the golden light in the sky converged towards the center like a vortex. Though it was "converging, " it was not a small spot the light converged on, but rather the entire sky above them.
Every place bathed by the golden light became bizarre; the wind blew so strongly that people felt pain on their skins.
"Kaiser, this isn't looking great!" Meinan roared.
"Bastard! Isn't that obvious? I think Baolilong has gone on a rampage!" Kaiser yelled back, but his heart was filled with happiness, "Looks like Liola doesn't have to die!"
"He doesn't have to die... but I think we will!" Meinan yelled desperately.
"Damn!" Kaiser ducked to dodge a giant rock, and screamed in the strong wind, "Then we should bail, hurry! Let's fly away with Purity! Flames, let's go!"
Meinan nodded, and each of them dragged Purity by one of her hands, and quickly flew up. Luckily, there was enough time; not only did the three flew out of the golden sky's range, many of the Knights in the audience also used their legs to run out of range.
After the four of them flee like refugees, they all tried to catch their breaths as they looked back to see what was happening. Miluo was obviously panicking; even though he had lived many years, he had never seen anything like that. His giant body stood up, and before it took many steps, it reached the edge of the golden sky. Everyone scattered away from him, to stop themselves from becoming a pancake. But the moment Miluo reached the edge, he ran into an invisible wall. No matter how hard he pushed or shoved, he could not leave the area.
Purity suddenly yelled, "Guys, look, the Dragon Emperor can't leave either."
Sure enough, the Dragon Emperor was also standing at the edge. He was not charging senselessly like Miluo, but he reached out his slender fingers and lightly touched the invisible wall. Everyone saw his finger looked like it was stopped by glass, stopping in the air.
"Your Highness!"
All the Knights began to yell, and they hurried back to save their Emperor, but the golden sky that generously allowed them to leave, would not allow them to come back. Another transparent wall stopped the Knights, making impossible for them to go back to save their Emperor.
The Dragon Emperor seemed unusually calm, as though he already knew this already going to happen. He raised his head to look at the sky, and his calm looks gave no indications of what he was thinking.
"The sky... gold lightnings!" The Knights all yelled.
The first bolt of lightning struck down, as if it was just a warning shot. When this bolt of lightning struck, it was wider than Miluo's black pillars, and a prideful figure appeared in the sky. It was a beautiful Sacred White Dragon, and the pink eyes told everyone, it was Baolilong. However, this Baolilong looked even more matured and beautiful than before, and every single white scale on its body was shimmering with a golden light.
When it slowly flapped its wings, countless golden lightning shot out beneath its wings, shooting down to ground like lightning from Zeus himself.
The golden lightning immediately filled the space between the transparent walls. It looked as though the walls were covered by a golden light. Everyone stared at this blankly, including the Knights who were anxious to save the Dragon Emperor. Not because they weren't loyal, but because the situation was clear to them, they were no match against the golden lightning.
"This is too crazy, what the hell is this?" Kaiser asked while staring.
"Dragon Magic." Flames answered reflexively. It was stunned also. Although it had already known from its master that Liola had gained the insight to Dragon Magic, but it would have never fathomed the spells would have such overwhelming and terrifying power.
Kaiser gulped, then said, "If I mess with Baolilong again in the future, someone please remind me with the words 'Dragon Magic'."
Everyone else nodded in awe.
* * *
Since the percentage of people staring absent-mindedly had reached one hundred percent, no one knew how much time had past before the golden lightning had faded away, leaving behind only beautiful sparkles twirling around in the air.
Everyone slowly regained their senses, and they looked inside to see what had happened; Miluo's giant body was now nowhere to be seen. Kaiser and others were shocked, wondering if Miluo's corpse did not even survive the onslaught? Crap, he was, after all, Baolilong's biological father, and he was only under control.
Kaiser and others ran over quickly. It wasn't until now that they saw two people inside. To be more accurate, one Dragon and one human. Miluo was lying face-down on the ground. Because he had turned into Dragon form before, his clothes were already gone, so he was on the ground, naked, with his dense long hair barely covering him. Nevertheless, one could see there were not many wounds on his body."The attribute of the Dragon Magic is decided between the Master and the Dragon."
Standing on the side, the Dragon Emperor looked like he was about to fall over at any moment, however, he burst into laughter instead and explained, "Haha, looks like those two don't want to harm anyone, and used such an unique Magic. Although it drained the enemies of all power and will, it did not actually hurt their bodies."
At this time, Baolilong also fell out of the sky. In its human form, Baolilong was also naked, and it looked completely exhausted. It crawled into Purity's arms, and murmured, "Papa is coming." Then, fell asleep soundly. By the looks of it, Baolilong was far too tired, and not even the end of the world could wake it right now.
As if to fulfill Baolilong's words, Liola walked towards them from afar, followed by Mizerui and Daylight. He walked up to everyone, and turned around to see his companions. Everyone looked truly happy to him; how could they not? They originally thought they may have to personally kill Liola to prevent him from falling prey to the Heart's control, then living a life that he wish he could end.
In the end, everything seemed to made an one eighty. Liola did not have to die, nor would he be under control, and everything sad and tragic had past... Tears of joy filled everyone's eyes.
Liola smiled lightly towards his companions, and turned around to face the Dragon Emperor once again. Since he had gained the knowledge of the Heart, and thereby Lucifer's past, even while talking, Liola could not help but include a sense of sympathy,
"You've lost, Dragon Emperor."
| ← Ch. 103 | Ch. 105 → |