*Boom!*
Cassius beat his wings and lowered his head. Countless dazzling motes of light erupted from his chest, and terrifying energy built up in his throat before surging forth all at once with the deafening crackle of bursting air.
Primordial Breath!
A thick pillar of fire ripped the sky apart. Its outer flames blazed a brilliant blue, while the inner fire reached an incandescent, blinding white. With temperatures soaring into tens of thousands of degrees, an ordinary mortal would have been vaporized merely by the aftershock.
Yet as the incarnation of war, a deity who had fought from ancient times to the present day, Gruumsh had slaughtered countless dragons and was intimately familiar with their breath weapons—even if this breath was unimaginably powerful.
*Hum—*
A clear ring resonated as countless intricate patterns lit up across the orc's mottled, battle-scarred black plate armor. Dozens of high-circle divine spells fell upon His form.
"Did you truly believe... a laughable breath like this could defeat a god?"
Surrounded by billowing black smoke, Gruumsh rose into the air. Reaching out with His left hand, He drew from the void a colossal shield projected from divine power, carved with the holy symbol of the single eye, and planted it before Himself.
Instantly, the blue-white pillar of flame was halted, even reflected. Before the great shield, the searing fire churned into a towering sea of flames, nearly burning space itself into a void.
Yet Gruumsh showed not the slightest fear. Divine power turned into a bloody radiance, clinging to His body and the shield's surface; the protective ward of a greater deity was utterly impenetrable.
His single eye brimmed with ferocity, glaring fixedly at the red dragon not far away. A bloody light gleamed within His pupil, a gaze that sent a shiver through even Cassius—the Unblinking Eye!
*Not good!*
Cassius quickly jerked his head away, deliberately avoiding eye contact. Yet from that single eye erupted an overwhelming deluge of bloody light that engulfed him entirely.
In an instant, Cassius felt as if he had been pulled back onto that ancient battlefield. Before him lay a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood composed of elves, dwarves, and orcs. Rather than a mere illusion, it was as if the Orc God's divine power had dragged the red dragon tens of thousands of years into the past, reconstructing the world of antiquity!
Gruumsh's true form sat atop the hill of corpses, Bloodspear in hand, looking down upon him with thunderous disdain: "Blasphemer, your heart shall be pierced by the spear!"
Meanwhile, in the reality of the Material Plane, Gruumsh's right hand likewise gripped the Bloodspear, veins bulging along His arm as terrifying force gathered, the spear's tip aimed straight at Cassius's heart.
The spear's sharp point was wrapped in black light, trailing thin wisps of dark mist that reeked of slaughter—the dragon-slaying power!
To any being carrying the essence of a dragon—even if only a trace—this power dealt catastrophic damage. In the ancient wars, Gruumsh had used this very power to slaughter several renowned great wyrms.
And as the bearer of progenitor blood, the essence of "dragon" in Cassius was immensely thick, virtually synonymous with the word itself.
Taking advantage of the red dragon's momentary trance under the thrall of the Unblinking Eye, Gruumsh wasted no time launching His attack.
"Blasphemer, your heart shall be pierced by the spear!"
With a voice like thunder, Gruumsh hurled the Bloodspear with all His might, grinning viciously. The spear, brimming with dragon-slaying power, tore through the air straight toward the red dragon's heart.
At that same moment, the Gruumsh on the ancient battlefield rose from the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, roaring in fury as He threw His Bloodspear at Cassius.
Cassius's body, mind, and very soul were assaulted at once. That Bloodspear, seething with dragon-slaying power, was about to destroy him utterly—erasing every trace of his existence from the world!
*No, danger! This is clearly an illusion!* Cassius roared in his heart.
The next moment, surging flames burst from the red dragon's pale-gold slit pupils. The ancient battlefield before him went up in flames, shattering into fragments like a broken mirror, and that illusory blood spear cracked to pieces.
The ancient battleground realm wrought of divine power was dismantled in an instant!
Gruumsh was slightly taken aback, then smirked. "You broke free... but it's too late now!"
The spear had already pierced across the sky, turning into a streak of black light that materialized directly before Cassius, ready to run his heart through.
Feeling that intensely targeted dragon-slaying power, Cassius's expression changed abruptly. *Damn it.*
*Such methods... as expected of a greater deity's avatar!*
He felt an instinctive tremor of fear, dread, and hatred. He could even hear his ancestors—those progenitor dragons hundreds, thousands of meters long—rearing their heads and howling in mourning.
This was the first time he had felt this way since ascending to a sub-progenitor dragon. No matter how tough his scales or how thick his hide, he could not withstand an attack aimed directly at his very essence.
He had to evade! He had to dodge this no matter the cost!
Cassius roared in his mind. Thousands of thoughts surged through him in a fraction of a second. Under the influence of the Spell Tide, dozens of spells were cast instantaneously one after another, weaving over his body.
The spell inscriptions across the red dragon's scales flared brilliantly. Multicolored auras of magic shimmered across his colossal frame as more than a dozen protective wards layered upon his hide, while transmutation spells pushed his speed and constitution to their absolute limits, accompanied by swirling spatial turbulence around him.
In this moment, Cassius was like a mobile magical fortress. He flapped his wings, on the verge of dissolving into a crimson blur.
Yet Gruumsh's single eye brimmed with confidence and disdain. In His sight, mortal spells were meaningless, fragile as paper, completely incapable of stopping this strike.
*Rip—!*
Bearing the dragon-slaying power, the Bloodspear tore through the void, relentlessly homing in on the red dragon's heart. It drew nearer and nearer, as though it would never rest until it had pierced its mark.
*Click.*
A crisp sound echoed.
High in the air, a golden pocket watch intricately carved with ornate patterns appeared, its hands jerking to a sudden halt at a single instant.
In that instant, accompanied by an unrivaled force of spacetime, the area for dozens of li around seemed to be frozen by a pause button. Drifting flames, gravel, and dust all halted in midair.
Down on the Blackrock Mountain battlefield beneath them, bullets and artillery shells hung suspended in the air; the flames spitting from imperial soldiers' muzzles froze completely still.
Orcs snarled with ferocious expressions, charging through the hail of gunfire and poising to swing their battleaxes, spit frozen mid-flight before their snarling maws.
A bullet even hung right between the brows of one orc—the instant time resumed, it would shatter his skull and punch straight through his head.
In a sense, Cassius had temporarily saved his life, though the orc, his thoughts frozen, had no idea.
Cassius had fully unleashed the power of the time pocket watch!
It would produce a full twelve seconds of Time Stop; in exchange, however, the watch's power would be drastically drained, or it might even break entirely after this use.
Yet Gruumsh was not affected in the slightest. Moving freely within the frozen spacetime, He merely frowned slightly and muttered, "The aura of Roald, of all dragons... that damned ancient time dragon..."
He looked up at the distant red dragon, the corner of His mouth curling upward. "Did you really think a mere Time Stop could stop a greater deity?"
*Whoosh—!*
The Bloodspear pierced through the stagnant spacetime as well, continuing its trajectory toward the red dragon's heart. Its speed had slowed considerably, however, so it was no longer a matter of being skewered through in the blink of an eye.
In this silent world where all things lay frozen, Cassius beat his wings frantically, skimming through the low altitude at unthinkable speed to evade the pursuing spear.
"Struggle no more—"
"Foolish red dragon! When this Time Stop ends, your life will end with it!"
The Orc God's arrogant voice echoed across the heavens, causing the frozen world to tremble slightly.
Teleporting through space again and again, Gruumsh trailed the red dragon from a distance, savoring the anticipation of watching His foe's heart pierced by the Bloodspear and witnessing his demise.
"You celebrate too early!"
Cassius suddenly whirled around. The dragon crystal at his chest shone as dazzlingly as a celestial body, pouring out endless light and heat until the entire world seemed eclipsed by its radiance.
In the final moment before the Time Stop expired, flames of chaos, fire of order, and solar divine power intertwined, unleashing completely. An immensely vast, frenzied torrent of energy erupted from the red dragon's maw!
*Boom—!*
The Bloodspear still surged toward the red dragon's heart, but under the scouring torrent of energy, it became like a skiff struggling against a raging current, slowing down more and more.
The dragon-slaying power coating the spear was eroded and neutralized by the torrent, thinning until it dissipated into wisps of dark mist.
Finally, the Bloodspear condensed of divine power disintegrated entirely within the deluge, scattering into motes of light that were devoured by Cassius's devouring breath.
The next instant, the time pocket watch dimmed, fine cracks spreading across its face. The Time Stop effect abruptly snapped, and spacetime resumed its flow. Billowing smoke surged, howling winds swept the land, and gravel flew through the air.
Due to the spacetime imbalance caused by the Time Stop, space warped along the outer boundaries of the spell's area of effect, giving rise to rifts of turbulent spacetime.
Down on the battlefield below, the bullet ruthlessly punched through the orc's skull, sending brains splattering and bone fragments flying.
*Boom!*
"For the glory of the All-Father!"
"For the Empire! Long live His Majesty Cassius!"
"Crush them!"
Smoke blanketed the earth. Orcs charged forward, swinging their weapons, only to be cut down one after another by the imperial soldiers' brutal firepower. This cruel, bloody world had finally come back to life!
Gruumsh's expression darkened. He gritted His teeth, rage contorting His face as an abyssal light flared once more from His single eye.
That Bloodspear was a projection of His genuine artifact, forged from divine power. With the spear devoured by the red dragon, Gruumsh felt that His true artifact had lost one-thousandth of its essence.
This was by no means a small loss; it represented tens of thousands of years of accumulation by the Orc God. What was more, it had been damaged by a mere mortal!
Having already noticed the sinister gleam within the Unblinking Eye, Cassius dodged away immediately. Flapping his broad wings, he kicked up a scorching gale and soared toward the northern skies.
In ordinary battles, he could rely on divination spells like Cataclysmic Dragon Eye to predict his opponent's moves and mount a measured counterattack.
But Gruumsh's divine rank was far too high. A greater deity was immune to all divination: no mortal had the right to pry into Him, no magic could sway Him, and no illusions could deceive Him. Such was the spell resistance of a god.
Gruumsh, on the other hand, could use His divine omniscience to accurately predict the next moves of mortals and lesser deities.
The supreme laws of Elezega suppressed the gods' power, permitting them to descend only in the form of avatars. An avatar held less than a thousandth of a true deity's might, yet that was already enough to stand atop the peak of the Material Plane.
"Red dragon! Did you think you could escape?" The Orc God's furious voice echoed between the heavens and the earth, making the world tremble.
He raised His right hand. As bloody light churned, formidable divine power solidified into an ancient, ponderous battleaxe. Its blade was stained with the blood of elves and dwarves, mottled from countless battles.
—It was said that this very battleaxe had once severed the head of an elven deity!
Gruumsh gripped the axe with both hands and raised it high. Trailing plumes of black smoke, He leaped hundreds of meters into the air, bringing the weapon down in a diving cleave aimed straight at the red dragon's head.
"Those who blaspheme a true god shall face judgment!" Gruumsh roared in fury, sweeping down toward Cassius with unstoppable momentum.
Bloody light of divine power surged from all directions. Cassius felt his entire body lock up, as if bound tight by heavy chains, leaving him barely able to breathe.
*Boom—!*
Yet Cassius threw back his head and unleashed an earth-shattering roar. The power of the progenitor dragon was aroused to its fullest, scalding blood coursing endlessly through his fundus vessels.
The red dragon's features turned increasingly ferocious. He beat his wings with all his might, his four powerful limbs straining in unison, and his mountain-sized frame forcibly shattered the divine domain.
With a colossal body nearly sixty meters long and overwhelming muscular strength, a casual strike from Cassius surpassed the vast majority of spells. Now, through sheer physical might alone, he could effortlessly obliterate a city and shatter heaven and earth.
"Die!"
Gruumsh brought the axe down viciously. Cassius dodged by a hair's breadth, yet the axe still struck his right arm before he could pull it clear.
A ringing clang sounded as bloody light erupted. The axe, drenched in divine blood, instantly sliced through scales, shearing away a large chunk of scale-clad flesh right off the red dragon's right shoulder!
The cut was cleanly severed, clinging with bloody divine radiance that relentlessly corroded the flesh and widened the wound.
The axe then struck the earth, whipping up billows of dust and cleaving an abyssal trench hundreds of meters long and ten meters deep into the ground. It split a distant knoll in two, and even tore open a sky-piercing dimensional rift in midair.
Such was the power of a greater deity. Even manifested only as an avatar, He could easily produce an apocalypse!
*Howl—!*
Feeling the searing agony of divine power gnawing at his wound, Cassius let out a furious howl, uncontainable rage flaring in his pale-gold pupils.
Seizing the brief opening as the orc pulled the axe from the ground, the red dragon swung his left arm with everything he had. The menacing claw tore through the air, sweeping from left to right.
Seeing the dragon's claw slash out, Gruumsh dodged nimbly. Having anticipated the strike, He rolled aside, causing the giant claw to slam heavily against the cliff face, collapsing the hill and sending boulders tumbling down.
Gruumsh used the momentum to scramble to His feet and swung His battleaxe with a backhand strike. Moving at blinding speed, He brought the blade down obliquely toward the red dragon's unguarded left neck, seeking to decapitate him in one blow.
Catching the orc's movement out of the corner of his eye, Cassius dodged frantically to protect his vital spot.
Bloody light flashed across the air as the strike bit into the red dragon's torso. The divine-infused blade sheared cleanly through the tough golden-red scales, cutting deep into the thick hide and threatening to plunge deeper.
Accepting the wound as the cost, Cassius wrenched his body around and brought his right claw crashing down on the attacking Gruumsh. Under the immense impact, Gruumsh was hurled backward, spewing a mouthful of divine blood.
Yet He had also left a gruesome wound several meters long across Cassius, nearly splitting his torso open.
Golden light descended as Dragon's Respite worked continuously to mend the red dragon's body. The power of the progenitor dragon drove his rapid regeneration, but that bloody divine energy clung like maggots on rotting bone, eating away at the wound.
*Even though this avatar's raw strength doesn't match mine, this old greenskin has been fighting for thousands—tens of thousands—of years. His combat skill and experience vastly outstrip mine, not to mention that cheat-like divine perception...*
Watching Gruumsh push Himself up from the ground with a vicious grin, and feeling the stinging pain of his flesh torn and corroded by divine power, Cassius licked the blood from his lips, his expression growing ever more grave.
He was certain Gruumsh had foreseen that last blow, but the Orc God had accurately calculated that the gains would outweigh the loss, and so had driven His axe home despite taking the red dragon's heavy counterstrike.
Chapter 678