Divine Punishment

“Jerlazax—this is not just my divine realm on earth, but your burial ground!” Cassius raised his head high, letting out an intensely exhilarated roar. For this moment of vengeance, he had prepared for years. The hundred-meter-long red dragon beat his wings in midair, whipping up scorching gales over the crest of Thierry Peak, sparks and flowing flames dancing wildly around his draconic frame. Elemental Resonance. Energy Attunement. Imperial Domain: Burst. Cassius climbed higher and higher, gathering energy until the dragon crystal embedded in his chest burned like a star, unleashing light so dazzling that onlookers across Anstica could not keep their eyes open. With every breath he took, the cluster of light within his body flowed along his fundus vessels to gather at his heart, surged into his lungs, and finally concentrated at the back of his throat. Within tens of li around the red dragon, the temperature rose sharply. The millennial snows atop Thierry Peak all melted and vaporized, billowing into churning clouds and laying bare the dark brown bedrock beneath. Under that immense, majestic power, the world trembled, and even Thierry Peak seemed to bow in submission to the Emperor. “That’s...” Even Jerlazax sensed the aura of mortal danger, seized by overwhelming terror. It was like divine punishment. This was no exaggerated metaphor, but something Jerlazax could feel down to his very core. In his perception, the strike Cassius was gathering was on the same level as the retribution the gods had visited upon the world tens of thousands of years ago. If he took this blow head-on, even this rare body of Garyx would perish. At that moment, Jerlazax even harbored the urge to flee Thierry Peak and escape the red dragon. Yet the thousands-of-meters-high Abyssal wall shuddered violently, starlight and silver rays bursting continuously across its surface, while the heavy black fog grew ever thinner. The planar barrier seemed on the verge of collapse. Jerlazax knew that if he did not devour this red dragon at the peak of his power now, the Triad of Justice would break through the blockade and descend in avatar form, plunging him into an even more perilous situation. Suddenly, as if striking upon a thought, the Abyssal dragon violently shook his massive head. “No, no, it can’t be... “After the Third Age—no, after the Second Era ended and that primordial deity vanished, no one has been able to create a divine realm on earth! “This damned red dragon is bluffing! He can’t keep this up for long...” At that thought, the Abyssal dragon roared to the heavens, letting out an enraged hiss as the fires of vengeance blazed fiercely in his eyes. “Roar—! “Cassius, no matter how you’ve done this, I will devour you! I will tear open your body with my own claws and dig out your secrets!” Yet as he raised his head and looked up at the red dragon high in the sky, he could not find even the faintest trace of panic in those pale gold pupils. All he saw was... divinity. Fire flickered in Cassius’s pale gold slitted pupils as he slowly parted his blood-red maw. Primordial Breath. Accompanied by the sonic detonations of tearing air, a dazzling beam erupted from between his jaws, and a terrifying torrent of energy engulfed everything. The Abyssal dragon wildly threw his head back and extended his neck. Endless chaotic fire spewed from his rotting maw, evil black-and-red flames blotting out the earth like a tidal wave. “Boom!” The two breath weapons clashed, setting off a succession of horrifying midair explosions that threw up billowing clouds of smoke hundreds of meters across. Black smoke churned, flames spilled in all directions, and continuous detonations shook the mountain range. The chaotic fire sought to unravel the opposing breath and reduce it to its most frenzied, primal form, yet Cassius’s breath held the most fundamental order—the power of the Imperial Domain! Before long, the searing white pillar of fire pierced through the evil chaotic flames; the churning black smoke withered away, replaced by an ocean of overflowing light. “Boom—!” Tearing through the black tide, the searing white fire column fell from the heavens like divine punishment, striking directly at the Abyssal dragon’s body—or more precisely, straight at his head. “No—!” Jerlazax shrieked in agony. Jerking his head aside, he strained with all his might to unleash what remained of his Abyssal power. Yet his resistance was futile, entirely unable to withstand the incoming breath. Fortunately, the searing white beam only grazed that massive head, but it still easily melted his dark red scales and punched clean through his left shoulder. Purplish-black dragon blood gushed forth, leaving a charred hole over ten meters across in his left shoulder, billowing with thick black smoke. Then the column of fire swept across, tearing off his entire left arm. The thick, dozens-of-meters-long limb and its massive talons crashed to the earth, throwing up a towering plume of smoke and dust. The Abyssal dragon had been reduced to a cripple. Though beneath the surging black smoke, the mangled stump writhed at visible speed to grow new flesh and sprout fine new scales, the newly regenerated flesh had lost its original “divinity.” Jerlazax threw back his head and howled, his voice thick with unbearable pain, brimming with boundless hatred and venom. “Cassius—! “You dare damage my perfect divine vessel! Once you exhaust this power, I will make you taste the most excruciating torment in the world! “I will make you watch with your own eyes as you are bitten and chewed to pieces, bit by bit...” Violent black flames surged up behind Jerlazax like a sky-spanning sea, pregnant with the all-destroying power of the Abyss. “Come, Cassius! Face me in this fated duel! I will forge your end with my own claws!” Disregarding the wound on his left shoulder, he beat his battered wings, whipping up raging gales as he lunged madly into the high sky, intent on killing the red dragon in close-quarters melee. Cassius also spread his wings and braced his body, diving from aloft with unstoppable momentum, letting out a thunderous shout. “Jerlazax! “You are too arrogant! Did you truly think I was unprepared for your arrival?” “Boom!” With a heavy, thunderous roar, the two mountain-sized dragons collided in midair. In an instant, a terrifying shockwave radiated outward from them, rolling across the sky in wave after wave. Jerlazax was far larger than the red dragon, and by all rights, he should have held absolute dominance in a physical clash. Yet Cassius, aided by the momentum of his dive and enveloped in the invisible power of laws rippling over his scales, drove the three-hundred-meter-long Abyssal dragon back by sheer force. Scales splattered across the sky. The Abyssal dragon tilted backward violently, his colossal draconic bulk sent tumbling in reverse. “Aaargh—!” Jerlazax howled in anguish, spewing purplish-black blood from his maw. Beating his wings frantically in midair, the Abyssal dragon barely managed to regain his balance, his murky, abyssal eyes filled with utter disbelief. How could this be? He—the Demon of Vengeance who had lurked in the Astral Plane for ten thousand years, the union of a progenitor dragon’s body and an Abyssal lord—had actually been defeated in a clash of raw strength?