Cassius seized upon this momentary distraction. Pressing his advantage, he dove in another short burst, coming down directly behind the Abyssal dragon.
*Whoosh—*
Accompanied by the screech of tearing air, the muscles in his powerful forelegs bulged, and razor-sharp talons slashed down from above.
Cassius drove his claws deep into the flesh along the Abyssal dragon's back, clinging with his entire weight behind the beast as he viciously tore into the nape of its neck.
Instantly, dark red scales were ripped away, spraying purplish-black blood and minced flesh across the upper atmosphere.
“*Roaaar—*
“Cassius, you death-seeking reptile! You dare engage me in close combat?!”
Jerlazax threw back his head and let out a furious roar, his colossal body thrashing violently.
An eerie, profound glow surfaced across his scales. Roaring flames ignited across his frame, and a majestic pressure erupted outward with a thunderous boom.
He had unleashed the divine power of Garyx!
It was the lingering vestige of Garyx's might—power Jerlazax had originally intended to save for the gods. Yet now, driven to desperation by Cassius, he had no choice but to play his trump card.
Panting heavily, Jerlazax released a piercing shriek from deep within his throat: “Cassius! Did you think you had already won? You celebrated far too soon!
“*This* is true power!”
Chapter of Profanation!
The Abyssal dragon's shrieks filled the surroundings, folding over one another like the collective wails of millions of wronged souls, making all creation tremble and souls shudder in terror.
Flames brimming with the divine power of renewal burned across the Abyssal dragon's severed arm and open wounds, granting him an appalling rate of regeneration.
In merely a few breaths, the severed limb regrew entirely, and the jagged wounds across the back of his neck healed at blinding speed.
*Whoosh—*
With a shrill howling whistle, a gale infused with the divine power of destruction washed incessantly over the red dragon on his back, seeking to tear that hundred-meter draconic frame to shreds.
Had it been any ordinary mortal, mere contact with this gale of ruin would have unraveled them in an instant, leaving behind not a trace of ash.
Yet Cassius stood within his Imperial Domain. Upon this land governed by the red dragon, he was akin to a descended god!
Across the red dragon's scales, an invisible force of order wrapped around him, forcefully holding back the onslaught of the destructive winds.
Cassius wrenched his claws free from the Abyssal dragon's flesh, snapped his wings, and hovered directly above the beast.
“True power?
“Heh. Upon this stage I poured my heart into crafting, *I* am the embodiment of power!”
Cassius split his jaws in a ferocious grin, his pale golden pupils welling with a silvery radiance like starlight.
Instantly, accompanied by a crushing pressure, a force resembling the very laws of the world slowly descended alongside his will.
Imperial Domain: Severance.
In a split second, the howling winds died away, all creation fell silent, and even the most fundamental elemental particles instantly calmed, while Garyx's divine power dissolved into nothingness.
The world surrounding him fell into dead stillness. Even the profane screech tearing from the Abyssal dragon's throat was snuffed out in an instant.
*Slash—*
*Slash—*
Cassius swooped past the Abyssal dragon's body again and again, incessantly tearing away vast swathes of scaled flesh from that massive, unwieldy draconic frame.
Originally, thanks to the essence of divine power, this carcass had been virtually indestructible, posing a challenge even for Cassius to harm.
Yet once the might of the Imperial Domain sealed that divine power away, Garyx's remains were reduced to nothing more than dead matter that had slumbered for ten thousand years.
“*Roaaar—*”
With a clarion roar, the crimson silhouette swept past the Abyssal dragon's flank once more. Razor-sharp talons carved through the air, ripping apart a vast expanse of wing membrane and leaving behind a narrow, sixty-meter gash.
“*Howl!*”
The Abyssal dragon let out a pained shriek. He whipped his head around, snapping his jaws in a frenzy, yet the red dragon flared his wings in midair and easily evaded the strike.
In the end, Cassius hovered directly above the Abyssal dragon, glaring down imperiously at the scarred, three-hundred-meter monstrosity.
At this moment, the red dragon's body was also covered in filth, gore, and broken scales—yet it was the Abyssal dragon's blood, not his own.
Cassius drew a deep breath, as though savoring the metallic stench of blood in the air, a glint of cruel satisfaction surfacing in his eyes. “Jerlazax...
“I taste the sweetness of vengeance. Do you know how long I have waited for this moment?”
Jerlazax's pupils constricted violently. Gazing up at the red dragon surrounded by the force of worldly law—resembling a deity descended into the world—he muttered ceaselessly under his breath.
“No...
“This is impossible... This cannot be...”
For tens of thousands of years, this Demon of Vengeance had grown accustomed to controlling everything. Every single time, he would find 'lucky pawns' in the Material Plane, turning them into nourishment for his grand designs.
Even when the occasional 'rebel' emerged, their eyes would be blinded by greed, ultimately reducing them to mere extensions of the Abyss.
Yet now, this red dragon—who had entered this world barely over a decade ago—had broken entirely free from his control and even backed him into a fatal corner.
Jerlazax roared at the red dragon above him.
“Impossible! Cassius, you are nothing more than a wretched red dragon born a dozen years ago!
“Everything you possess was arranged by me a century ago! Your very fate was a trajectory meticulously designed by my hand!”
At last, under relentless provocation, Jerlazax tore away his mask of pretension, completely unleashing the mad, chaotic essence of an Abyssal demon.
The Abyssal dragon shook his head in near-lunacy, parting his rotting, cavernous maw to emit a deranged murmur.
“Right...
“As long as I eat you, as long as I devour you, everything will come to an end. Everything will remain under my control, and the great design of the Abyss will not have failed...”
At this moment, the 'humanity' fabricated by this Demon of Vengeance had been completely erased, leaving behind only the purest, most chaotic will of the Abyss.
Right now, he was the embodiment of the Abyss itself.
His voice grew ever higher, ever more shrill, until it finally transformed into a turbulent, deafening roar.
“I will—*eat you!*”
Thrashing his wings wildly, heedless of the grievous wounds covering his body, the Abyssal dragon hoisted his massive, three-hundred-meter frame and surged toward the red dragon high in the sky with a demented shriek.
He wobbled unsteadily, looking entirely like a feral beast devoid of any reason.
Yet through Cassius's eyes, which could see through the essence of all things, this Abyssal dragon had already turned into an aggregate of chaotic black mist, his soul resembling a grotesque, stitched-together monstrosity.
Cassius hovered in the sky and said softly, “Is this the true nature of an Abyssal demon? Well, so much the better. It saves me the trouble of wasting more effort.
“Let it all end here... Jerlazax, I shall grant you a grand finale.”
The red dragon beat his wings with all his might, instantly rending space to ascend tens of thousands of meters into the upper sky.
Cassius looked down upon the Abyssal dragon surging madly toward him. Stretching his neck, tucking his limbs tight, and unfurling his incomparably vast wings, he vented brilliant flares of radiant flame from the vents at his elbows and tail.
Finally, the red dragon let out a long roar, launching into a monumental dive toward the Abyssal dragon—streaking across the sky like a crimson meteor.
“*Roaaar—*”
Chapter 541