Right now, Grimagos's eyes were blood-crimson. Enveloped in a hazy scarlet glow and venting scalding steam, he resembled a fiend straight out of hell, unleashing ruinous shockwaves with every gesture.
The fiery clouds in the sky churned and surged with his movements. Pillars of flame plummeted from the heavens, blasting into the cavern like divine punishment, riddling the rock strata with molten craters.
Wherever his gaze fell, stone melted into scorched earth. The Dragonscale Marines scrambled and tumbled to evade, but three were too slow. Struck full-on by the beams, their heavy dragonscale armor was burned clean through in an instant.
As the empire's most elite infantry, the Vigitas Dragonscale Marines possessed immense vitality, capable of surviving even the destruction of their hearts. Yet under Grimagos's single strike, both beating hearts—along with their auxiliary backup hearts—were incinerated entirely, leaving nothing of their chests but gaping, charred voids.
The Dragonscale Marine Legion had finally suffered casualties! Yet Grimagos showed no mercy, unleashing lethal crimson rays from his eyes without pause.
This was the origin of "the Crimson Eye." Blessed by Kazul, Grimagos possessed a gaze capable of reducing all things to cinders!
"Block him!"
Led by Eamon, the heavily armored Dragonscale Marines surged forward, forming a wall before Grimagos. The beast snapped his powerful dragon wings forward, sweeping them across in a violent buffet.
"Raise shields!"
Boom—!
Accompanied by a dull crash that could stop a heart, the two Dragonscale Marines at the front were swatted away by the immense force, shields and all. Their heavy armor crumpled and deformed in midair before they slammed into the scorching rock wall in the distance with a sickening crunch of shattered bone, their fates unknown.
Eamon barely managed to brace his heavy shield in defense. The sheer kinetic shock hammered straight through the barrier, jarring his internal organs out of place. A sweet coppery taste surged up his throat, but he gritted his teeth and forced the blood back down.
The colossal momentum lifted his boots from the ground, sliding him backward.
The instant Eamon lost his balance and skidded back, a cruel, cunning calculation flickered in Grimagos's molten-gold slit pupils.
Before his beating wings had even fully retracted, his grotesque, scale-plated talons were already raised like lightning, claws spread wide!
At the center of his palm, an ultra-compressed, incandescent core of fire—far brighter than his earlier dragon breath—formed and collapsed in an instant, detonating with maniacal fury within a thousandth of a second!
Instant Pyroblast!
The timing was utterly vicious.
It struck precisely when the players were battered, disoriented, their formation broken, and their defenses at their weakest from the wing buffet.
Carrying a spatial screech that seemed to scorch through the void, that concentrated ball of ruin slammed straight into the ground less than five meters ahead of Eamon—right where several Dragonscale Marines were clustering, trying to steady their footing and cover one another!
Vision was swallowed by pure, annihilating white light.
Immediately following came a deafening explosion and a shockwave that tore the earth asunder.
The blistering blast wave smashed into everyone like an invisible warhammer.
Eamon only had time to wrench his battered heavy shield before his body before the violent force threw him into the air, hurtling backward to crash heavily onto the ground. His ears rang with a piercing whine; the world spun and tilted upside down, and the reek of charred flesh filled his nostrils.
"Holy crap..."
Dazed and dizzy, Eamon struggled to lift his head, his heart seized with horror.
At the epicenter of the blast lay a blackened crater several meters wide, still bubbling with dark-red magma. Scattered around its rim were twisted metal fragments and mangled limbs—either instantly vaporized by the searing heat or reduced to scorched wreckage.
Their Dragonscale Marine Legion had already lost six men!
Yet after unleashing this horrifying blow, Grimagos also heaved ragged, heavy gasps, evidently needing a moment to recover his stamina.
A look of resolve hardened across Eamon's face. Gathering every ounce of his remaining strength, he hurled the crack-riddled holy sword in his grip—Dawn's Pledge—like a javelin!
The blade erupted with unprecedented, dazzling radiance like a miniature sun. No longer a warm gold, it burned with an incandescent fire of judgment fueled by his very life essence!
The holy sword became a streak of light piercing through the smoke, driving straight toward Grimagos's head with absolute precision and finality!
Grimagos hastily thrust out a massive claw, attempting to snatch the holy sword mid-flight.
Thwack!
The dull sound of steel punching through tough dragon scales, muscle, and bone rang out with startling clarity in the cavern.
Like a red-hot branding iron, the incandescent holy blade drove deep into the vulnerable joint connecting Grimagos's wrist and talons!
Most of the blade sank in, leaving only the violently vibrating hilt and a gush of spurting blood!
"ROAAAR—!"
Grimagos let out an earth-shattering howl of agony, his voice laced with disbelief at the searing pain and blind fury at being maimed by mere insects. His giant claw locked rigidly in midair!
The holy flames scorched his flesh and sinew, hissing with dense white smoke.
His colossal frame trembled violently from the pain. His molten-gold slit pupils whipped toward the direction the sword had flown, locking onto the kneeling paladin, Eamon, whose armor was shattered and body soaked in blood.
The malice and madness burning in that gaze were enough to send chills through even an abyssal demon.
Facing that venomous stare, Eamon showed no fear—only reckless exhilaration and grim resolve.
His body shuddered violently from burning through his holy power, veins bulging beneath his skin like burning traceries, and flecks of gold glimmered in the blood trickling from his nose and mouth.
The paladin roared, "Now! Focus fire and bring him down!"
Accompanied by a relentless barrage of blasts, a dense tempest of bullets, missiles, and energy rays converged upon Grimagos like a raging storm.
Several Dragonscale Marines brandished chainswords, power swords, and power spears, tearing into Grimagos's flesh with near-frenzied brutality, sending blood splattering and scales flying.
Grimagos's massive chest heaved violently. His labored breathing sounded like a ruptured bellows, every inhale drawing a muffled rattle from deep within his chest.
The vast membranous wing on his left hung limp, torn open with a massive gash. Dragon blood, dark red bordering on black, dripped continuously like molten iron, scorching wisps of blue smoke from the baking ground.
His monstrous head drooped slightly. A patch of scales had been torn away from his brow, exposing scorched flesh and fractured bone, down which thick dragon blood traced a crooked path, running across his molten-gold vertical pupil.
The tyranny and contempt that once burned in those eyes had vanished, replaced by the agony and fury of a wounded beast—and an even more chilling, arctic killing intent.
"Get away from me—!"
That crimson brilliance erupted once more from Grimagos's frame, instantly blasting aside the dozen-plus Dragonscale Marines swarming him, flinging them over a hundred meters away.
His giant claw, pinned by the holy sword, thrashed violently. The berserk strength caused the burning blade to groan under immense strain.
Those molten-gold slit pupils glared murderously at Eamon, the churning venom nearly condensing into tangible malice—he would crush this damnable bug first!
Blistering destructive energy gathered once more within his pupils, aimed straight at the defenseless Eamon.
"Die, worm!"
At this critical juncture, Singo produced a pitch-black metal sphere the size of an infant's fist, etched with countless minute space-fissure runes, and hurled it violently forward—the Imperial Research Institute's custom-made dimensional collapse bomb!
Boom—!
It was not a deafening blast, but a heart-stopping thud, as though space itself were being forcibly ripped apart, crumpled, and collapsed inward.
Centered on where the black sphere landed, an ink-black miniature black hole the size of a fist formed abruptly, swallowing all light! A terrifying gravitational pull erupted in an instant!
Snap!
It was the sound of bone and tendon snapping completely under spatial distortion that surpassed all physical limits!
Grimagos's struggling claw, still impaled by the holy sword, was cleanly and ruthlessly torn away at the wrist joint by the monstrous spatial shear generated by the miniature black hole!
Half of his body trembled within the warping space like a rag about to be crushed into a ball.
"No... I will not die here! I am a servant of Lord Kazul! I shall ascend to the divine realm!"
The red light in his eyes flared outward, and a gargantuan, twisted phantom of a red dragon manifested behind him. Compared to Cassius, the red dragon in the phantom was far more insane and savage, looking ready to destroy everything in its path at any moment.
This was the "Crimson Ember" Kazul, one of the three gods, the dragon said in Cult of the Dragon legends to have burned the old world.
In an instant, rock shattered and the magma cavern collapsed. Opening its vast maw, Kazul's divine avatar swept forth dragon breath carrying the divine might to erase all creation, surging toward the Dragonscale Marines. Even the miniature black hole was snuffed out by the force.
Yet Xiaye Qiuyu had come prepared. Having long awakened the Emperor's bloodline within her, she activated the dragon-pact sorcerer's ultimate ability—Planar Breath, colloquially known as "summoning big daddy."
A pillar of fire, blisteringly hot and ferocious, tore through the bound space, shattered the blockade of the Doomsday Forbidden Zone, and erupted outward to clash directly against Kazul's world-burning flames.
Boom—!
The two pillars of flame collided, unleashing a catastrophic shockwave that obliterated the entire cavern in an instant, bringing down an avalanche of boulders that buried the players beneath them.
Grimagos was blasted backward by the impact as well. His towering, nearly ten-meter-tall frame struck the rock face like a battering ram. The scales over his chest were burned clean through by the flames, leaving a charred, gaping hole.
He had exposed a weakness!
The impregnable defense bestowed upon him by Kazul was finally shattered!
"Accursed humans, Lord Kazul will never—"
Just as Grimagos struggled to rise, a flame-wreathed silhouette charged through the billowing smoke—Tiansheng Zhankuang, fully transformed into a pit fiend!
"Die!"
With a furious roar, the flaming greatsword drove deep into Grimagos's chest, skewering the frantically beating heart.
As Kazul's favored servant, Grimagos possessed astonishing vitality. Even with his heart impaled, he refused to die, raising his sole remaining giant claw to seize Tiansheng Zhankuang mid-air.
Yet at that very moment, another dark silhouette charged forward, clad in heavy scales and wielding a wickedly sharp spear crackling with destructive energy—the vanguard of the Dragonscale Marines, Futejia Hepan!
Swoosh—!
With a piercing shriek, the ten-meter power spear tore through the air, piercing Grimagos's wrist and pinning his only remaining giant claw firmly to the rock wall.
Stone fragments showered down and blood spurted. Grimagos threw back his head and wailed in agony, his features contorted in horrific rage. Red light flickered deep within his pupils, as if preparing to unleash another scalding beam.
Yet Gangtie Kuangchao had already crept up silently. Leaping into the air, he hollered, "Shooting lasers from your eyes? You think you're Superman?! I'll gouge your damn eyes out!"
The rapidly churning, tooth-rimmed chainsword plunged straight into Grimagos's left eyeball, churning violently inside the cavernous socket.
The divine energy on the verge of release was violently disrupted, collapsing into a destructive maelstrom that nearly blew his skull apart. A plume of flame erupted from his right eye instead, boring through the rock strata and shooting toward the heavens!
"ROAAAR—!"
The roar was earth-shaking, setting the volcano trembling. Under Grimagos's fury, the disaster's power grew ever more violent. Fire clouds churned, and several nearby volcanoes stirred to life, spewing forth plumes of magma.
Without a moment's hesitation, Singo drew an arrow from his quiver, nocked, and drew his bow in one seamless motion. A sharp dragonslayer arrow whistled through the air, piercing straight into Grimagos's remaining uninjured eye with a sharp hiss.
Grimagos's shrieks grew ever more agonizing. The earth trembled violently, scalding winds howled with abandon, and clouds of black ash choked the sky, making it look as though doomsday had arrived.
Yet Tiansheng Zhankuang bellowed, unleashing towering hellfire from his infernal greatsword that scorched Grimagos's flesh with mad intensity.
The Dragonscale Marines swarmed forward, delivering damage with relentless efficiency. Chainswords and power swords hacked through meat and sinew, while power spears stabbed into his body again and again, eager to mince the hulking half-dragon into paste.
"You will all perish under Lord Kazul's wrath!" Grimagos roared in fury, his knotted muscles thrashing with wild abandon. Under that tremendous strength, even a dozen men working together could barely hold him down.
Several Dragonscale Marines were hurled away by his writhing frame, and searing geysers of flame erupted from the ground.
Gangtie Kuangchao, however, pulled out a man-portable cannon with a ridiculously large caliber, jammed the barrel straight into Grimagos's mouth, and snarled, "Shut the hell up!"
The trigger was pulled; the shell left the barrel.
Boom!
With a thunderous blast, Grimagos's head was blown to bloody pieces, and his heart was shredded to pulp by Tiansheng Zhankuang's infernal blade.
This former favored servant of Kazul, the master of catastrophe across a hundred leagues, had died in utter humiliation beneath the players' siege.
Heaven and earth trembled, as if mourning the servant's demise.
The fire clouds vanished abruptly, the smoke was swept away by howling winds, the magma cooled into jet-black rock, and vitality began to seep back into the land.
"We did it!"
"Holy crap, he's actually dead!"
"Awesome!"
The players stood atop Grimagos's corpse, throwing their arms around each other's shoulders and shouting in triumphant celebration. Even Gangtie Kuangchao and Singo stood side by side, their faces brimming with unrestrained joy.
Notifications for their rewards appeared in their quest logs.
[Together, you have slain the Crimson Eye—Grimagos. Exploration of the Doomsday Forbidden Zone increased to 15%. You have obtained the right to choose special rewards. Please distribute them among yourselves.]
The very next instant, Gangtie Kuangchao and Singo, who had looked like brothers-in-arms just a second ago, glanced at each other. Both gripped their weapons with deep suspicion and leaped back a dozen meters, each terrified the other would launch a sudden sneak attack.
With grim faces and eyes blazing with hostility, the two shouted in unison:
"The reward belongs to us!"
Chapter 841