Book 7 - Fleeting Glory Chapter 32

Battle For The Deepblue

Nine wyverns took off into the night sky, flying west as quickly as they could. From the first moment they were driven to full speed, flapping their wings desperately to comply with their master's orders.

Richard's body was pressed into the back of his wyvern as he regularly switched mounts. He didn't fear the cold winds, but the posture was meant to suppress the anxiety in his heart. He wanted desperately to just leave this behind and fly over himself— he would certainly get there much faster— but that would exhaust him completely and leave him useless when he did get there. Never in his life had he regretted his lack of interest in long-distance portals as much as he did right now.

"Are you not going to help him, Your Majesty?" Julian asked Empress Apeiron. The two were watching it all from the royal keep.

"Why would I? It only serves him right if he dies."

"Didn't you say there was a powerhouse outside of Voidbones?"

A meaningful smile appeared on Apeiron's face, "The Prime Evil herself, Tiamat. She's no ordinary powerhouse."

"The Prime Evil? Then isn't Her Excellency Sharon in danger? There's no point even if Richard rushes there! Your Majesty..."

"You're suggesting I go?"

Julian bowed his head, "Yes, you're the only one who can get there in time."

"Heh, I'm not interested in saving Sharon. You don't know her at all, do you? Think she won't be able to defend herself while asleep? I wouldn't underestimate her until she was dead and cut apart."

He shook his head, "No, the dragon! Once Tiamat enters Norland, her powers will surely be restricted. But she still is a legendary being who is tenfold as strong as what we get in this warehouse. It's a delicacy!"

"Oh? A meal, huh... That's worth considering..."

......

Under the night sky, the Deepblue that should have been silent was now a crass symphony of thunderous explosions. A number of winged creatures were flying around the tower, launching magic attacks or throwing javelins at it. It took a number of attacks over quite a significant period of time, but they eventually managed to break some of the elaborate construction off the main body. The rubble crashed hard into the ground before bouncing up and rolling off the steep cliff into Floe Bay.

A terrifying hole was left behind where the wall had fallen, revealing a figure with green flames all around him and azure ones for hair. His entire body was floating in the air, slowly moving forward towards a black-clothed individual who recoiled stiffly.

The man opposite Voidbones was flickering in and out of existence, evidently possessing a powerful ability. Had he not been affected by the sheer power of the green flames revealing him, he would have gone unseen. The heavily injured man took several steps backwards in a hurry, but after a misstep he fell like a rock and crashed into the rubble below. Losing all ability to move, he eventually dissolved into a puddle of black liquid.

Voidbones snickered as he pulled out a shineless black dagger from his left shoulder, tossing it out of the tower without a second thought. The injury it had left on his shoulder showed no signs of healing, instead festering endlessly from some sort of curse that offset his natural regeneration.

"The third antimage... It should be the last one, no? You really made some good achievements, Richard. If only you knew just how strong I've become now, or who I brought along!" He drew a deep breath, eyes finally showing emotion as he looked towards the uppermost level of the Deepblue and walked towards Sharon's residence.

Just as Voidbones reached the gate, Blackgold quietly revealed himself and held out his gun before pulling the trigger. Thunderous flames erupted in the building, antimagic steel pellets assaulting Voidbones who curled into a ball and used his arms to protect his face. The green flames protecting him were dispelled after a few blows and the thousands of pellets afterwards pushed him into the wall!

The grey dwarf's gun wasn't particularly large this time, but it had evidently been improved. He shot nearly a dozen times before stopping and putting the weapon down, glaring at Voidbones with murder in his eyes.

Voidbones had been forced into a corner, the walls around him filled with numerous holes, but once Blackgold had used up all his bullets he slowly put his arms down and flashed a cruel smile, "Is there more?"

Before the stunned duergar could finish a quick chant, he flashed right in front of his face and smacked him to the ground, "Still too slow as always."

Looking at the fainted Blackgold, Voidbones raised his hand to deal the final blow. But after a moment of hesitation, he put his hand down and turned to head upwards. Feeling the entire tower rock slightly and a resounding draconic cry ring out in the sky, he gritted his teeth and continued towards Sharon's chambers.

...

Back outside, the dark night had been set ablaze. The clouds were now a mysterious red, as though there were raging flames within. The core of these clouds had gradually grown denser like a bleeding wound, and all of a sudden an enormous fireball shot out to strike a human figure atop the Deepblue.

"The damned wounds... If only..." Countless streams of icy rain appeared around the humanoid figure, extinguishing the flames to reveal his near-perfect appearance. Ensio opened his eyes and grunted; there were no ifs in battles like this one.

The fiery cloud in the skies suddenly started rotating, forming a giant vortex. An enormous head that was several metres long finally poked through, the draconic creature having dozens of horns and hundreds of terrifying teeth. The dragon immediately spewed out a cone of flames that covered Ensio and the top of the Deepblue, even spilling over the top and affecting a dozen of the winged creatures.

These creatures all had high resistance to magic and didn't fear fire, but the moment they made contact with the flames all of the affected creatures burnt up and howled as they fell from the skies. Each one was motionless before it even reached the ground. The rest immediately dispersed; they were Tiamat's underlings, but even they wouldn't dare show themselves to her lest she kill them on a whim.

On top of the tower, Ensio had already crouched and curled up to limit his surface area. The energy surrounding his body was flickering as he barely resisted the scorching flames, but even after the dragon was done her flames continued to burn around him.

Tiamat burst into thunderous laughter, "Ensio, is it? It must feel amazing to contend with my flames!"

As the flames atop the Deepblue winked out, the tower's structure seemed to have sustained no damage. However, Ensio struggled to stand up while grumbling; Tiamat's breath was special in that it had little effect on those who were not alive. Now injured further on top of his old injuries that he hadn't recovered from, he was almost completely drained of his life.

The dragon finally made her way out of the clouds, revealing an enormous body that was nearly a hundred metres long. Landing atop the Deepblue, she sent Ensio flying with a swipe of her tail and produced an ear-splitting roar, "Sharon, you're fated to be mine!"

The Prime Evil's roars pierced through the walls of the Deepblue, entering Voidbones's ears. He immediately turned grim and snorted, rushing ahead faster.

As Tiamat looked down and searched for an entrance into the Deepblue, a dozen rune knights suddenly surged out from the tower and threw their javelins towards her in tandem. They then spurred on their mounts and began a charge, prepared for death.

The dragon hadn't been expecting this at all, and almost every one of the spears pierced deep into her body. However, these javelins that were only a metre long were nothing compared to her enormous body; most only made it half a metre in. The Savage Strike knights had managed to get theirs all the way in, causing her to howl in pain, but even they didn't manage any lasting damage. As they rushed in and stabbed their halberds into her side, she lit them up with a dragon breath and swatted them away with her claws. None of them survived.

By this point, between Voidbones and Tiamat herself, more than half of the fifty rune knights Richard had left behind to guard were injured or dead. The attack had come far too quickly, and Voidbones had picked off a number of them one by one before heading towards Sharon's residence. Even the full fifty in formation couldn't deal with the dragon, but now they were at half strength.

Still, the Archeron knights knew no fear. They charged forward into certain death, doing their best to buy time and injure Tiamat as much as they could. By the time Tiamat dealt with them all, she had to spend some time recovering and pushing out the javelins that were stuck within her.