Chapter 26 – Ifrit (4)

The Star of Annihilation
Chapter 26 – Ifrit (4)
Written by : eleven

* * *

Boom.

Argenta was pretty much on the verge of despair.

Him? A great and proud member of the Dragon Race? Fear?

It was something that was so opposite in nature for him.

Yet, here he was thinking that he was about to trade blows with the Greatest of all Spirit Kings with his polymorphed Draconic Human Form.

The only drawback to this form was that he had to look like a human, but in exchange he could use aura, amplify his magical abilities and much more.


– How silly.


It didn’t make it any better that ifrit continued to mock him.

Everytime Argenta threw a flurry of strikes, he could see it.

With his purple aura that coated his body and most especially his eyes that allowed him to see the ‘flow’ of things, he saw that everytime he looked into this ‘flow’, it was immediately reversed on him.


<Ugh…..>

– I’m sure that even that human swordmaster must be shaking his head over there.


Ifrit looked in the direction of Lucius who silently watched the exchange of the two great beings.

Ifrit was right.


‘What a formidable beast. But it cannot see the grains.’

Lucius clicked his tongue.

Such a beast was farther ahead of him in several aspects : Aura manipulation, fighting instinct, adaptability and could even use magic. Whereas his roots were only based in ki and was not a magical swordsman.

But despite Argenta taking a one-sided beating, Lucius knew that even if Argenta was equal to him in terms of all things, he would probably lose.

The only problem that Lucius didn’t like, was that Argenta may have learned several martial arts and could probably pummel Lucius if they had the same power, Lucius would still have a trump card over Argenta that could turn the tables.

And both he and Ifrit knew what it was.

Grains.


<What do you mean…?!>

– I have no interest in you anymore. Find out in death.

<Huh?- … Hup!>


Argenta spat out a fistful of black blood.

Ifrit was by no means a fool and stuck his claw-like hands right through Argenta’s chest.

Holding a beating heart in his hand that was spurting blood, it was shaped like a black crystal in some ways.


Splat!


And he crushed it without hesitation.


Thud.


Argenta’s draconic human body slumped to the floor, the whites of his eyes rolling to the back of his head and lay lifeless.

Silence descended the battlefield, as Ifrit then turned to the humans.

Instinctively, The Archmages around the princes and Dante drew started to rouse their mana and ki cores.


“At ease.”


Lucius commanded them.


“But…!”


Dante protested.


“He’s not going to harm us. You saw it for yourself that it was summoned by that boy.”


Everyone turned towards the boy who was lying on the dirt and ashen battlefield, with his mother crying next to him on her knees.

It was a sorrowful scene.


“He’ll live.”


Tubel spoke up as he rose up from his kneeling position next to Mathilde, placing his hand on Mathilde’s shoulder for comfort.


Whoosh!


Ifrit’s figure disappeared in the next second and before anybody could say anything, he was holding Roy in his arms.


Mathilde quickly turned her desperate figure and screamed at Ifrit.
“You… YOU!!!!!”

– I’m sorry M’lady. I did not do this, but I can fix it.

“…You fucking DEMON!”


She howled at him in pain rushing towards him and beat her hands on Ifrit’s incorporeal flaming body.

Oddly enough there was no heat or burns on her body as she did this and sulked.

Ifrit stared at Roy in his arms wordlessly.


-…..


Raising his free hand, Ifrit’s hand started to shine in a bright white light and placed it on Roy’s chest, right above his core.


The blinding white light allowed nobody to see what had happened.


Whoosh.


“…..”


As the light dimmed, and everybody started to become able to see again, Ifrit’s body had disappeared and Roy lay on the ground with his dried blood completely gone and his breathing stable.


“Roy!”


Mathilde rushed to her son and checked on him.

She knew enough about magic and her son to know his state.


Zzzzzz… zzzz…..


He was snoring.

Yes, Roy, the boy of mystery to many, was asleep like a child.

And on his right forearm, where nobody had seen it as it was covered by his sleeping tunic, there was a mark.

Like a tattoo, the mark had an odd symbol.

Black flames that wrapped around his forearm in a circle.


* * *

Deep within the chasm of the Dragon Lord’s Palace…


<Hm?!>


At that moment, Parish, the Lord of the Dragon Race looked up at the ceiling of the dark chasm he rested in.

Atop his throne made of bones from the finest wizards humanity had to offer in the past, his Draconic eyes bore into and beyond the walls of the ceiling from the cave he was in.


<What…?! Argenta… has died.>


His calm and stoic exterior had cracked for a moment as he realized this, but his indifferent countenance quickly took over.

Looking at the stars, the gray one with a purple light, fading away, he examined it closely.

Two stars were there and eventually one even merged into the other.

A red and ominous star loomed over the night sky as it absorbed a large star that the Lord was familiar with.

<Ifrit? But he should be sealed…. Is this some kind of fucking game the Gods and Spirits are trying to play now?>

His crimson red and lengthy hair shook lightly as he moved his head from side to side in regret and disdain.

There was no way for the Gods to exert their powers into this Realm fully without the use of apostles, and even if they did, he had taken on minor gods before and survived.

Parish grew hesitant though as he looked at the Red Star.

<Ignorance only leads to death.>

He muttered to himself.

He had left his world a long time ago on the mission to exterminate some of the lower worlds for the Great Massacre along with the other Lords that were sent to different series of universes.

He had gotten this far on his own after exterminating a good many worlds in this universe.

He also knew well that if he left this star alone, he would certainly regret it.

After a long pause, Parish gathered his thoughts.

This world was by far one of the strongest ones so far that he had exterminated, and this particular last continent left, was one of the strongest despite having lackluster magical science advancement.

There was a simple reason for it.

Of the seven or so scouts that he had sent, six had returned successfully except for Argenta, and they had reported several concerning things.

This last continent has several different species that if he had just waged war immediately, they would only win but with great loss.

The Great Three, that were particularly older dragons, and himself, would be the only survivors with the exception to a few.

They wouldn’t have much of a problem, but he could not afford to go back to his original world in the higher universes with such low numbers and not face shame as a Lord.

If there was a good thing among all this, the Gods of this universe were lofty and arrogant and found humans and other species to be nothing but playthings; meaning they would not step in even if he massacred all of them.

At this thought, Parish decided his next course of action.

<Call Latras for me to my chambers.>

Parish sent the message to the younger Dragon in the room with him, his son, to call for one of the Great Three.

Latras was the more technological of the Dragons and had helped the Lord discover new things as well as recorded some of the history they went through while studying the humans.

In particular, Latras was fascinated with the thing they called alchemy.

<Yes, father.>

<Good, Hanu.>

Hanu, his son, bowed his head and left the chambers.

Parish knew that if things came to push and shove he would need Latras to devise something.

He needed a larger and more mobile army than just the hundred or so Dragons on hand in this world.




Chapter 26 – Fin

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