Chapter 378: The Story After (10) [Side Story, Part 10]

The air turned scorching hot, and a deep, dense red breath poured down toward Ketal.

“Oh!” Ketal cried.

The power in this breath could not even be compared to what he had seen before. Ketal let out a delighted sound as he clenched his fist. Aura gathered and wrapped around his knuckles.

He gathered his strength and punched forward as the air burst apart. The torrent of dragon breath veered off its path in an instant, forced aside and redirected until it curved back and crashed down over Ignisia instead.

The flame itself was her power. It could not truly harm her even if it swallowed her whole, but the shockwave that followed lifted her and hurled her backward into the sky. Ignisia let out a hollow laugh as she steadied herself.

“I compressed that breath for an entire hour, and you scattered it with a single punch!

Space, become chains!

”

The world itself creaked. Space twisted and turned into interlocking chains that reached out to bind Ketal. He bared his teeth.

“Dragon Tongue!” Ketal exclaimed.

It was the mighty, inherent magic of dragons and the authority they wielded. They commanded the world itself and forced it to obey. Ignisia invoked the Dragon Tongue again.

“

Bind!

” Ingnisia invoked the Dragon Tongue again.

The chains spun with a metallic rush and wrapped around Ketal’s entire body. Ketal tensed his muscles. Cracks raced through the chains that made up the very structure of space. Pure physical strength alone tried to shatter the authority of a dragon. Ignisia stared, momentarily speechless.

“Karin! It’s your turn!” she called.

“Come forth, Spirit King of Wind Minerva!” Karin cried.

The elf, who had been concealed until now, raised her voice. The very concept of wind took form into a feminine figure with hair the color of a clear blue sky.

“Oh,” Minerva said, laughing softly. “Karin. You call me after so long, and this is what you call me for?”

“Please,” Karin said. “Minerva. Hold him down.”

“O, of course. I will try,” Minerva answered.

The Spirit King flew toward Ketal, and the wind roared. Invisible currents wrapped around him and tried to pin him in place. Ketal greeted her with genuine warmth.

“Minerva! It has been a while. You seem well.”

It flinched, eyes going round. “

Eek!

”

The Spirit King hid itself behind a gust of wind as if it had seen something terrifying.

The world shook as Dragon Tongue and the power of a Spirit King converged. The two mighty forces overlapped and tangled around Ketal, pinning him from every direction. These were the fully prepared authorities of Heroes, powers they had refined and stored for an entire hour before unleashing them.

Even another Hero would not have been able to break free, unable to take even a single step under that crushing weight.

Yet Ketal laughed.

“This is delightful!” Ketal said as he stamped his foot.

The ground rippled. A wave of pure physical force spread through the desert, shuddering through sand, stone, and sky. The spatial chains and the binding wind shook as if struck by a quake.

“

Kh.

”

“

Urgh!

” Karin and Ignisia groaned as the shock rocked them.

“This is respectable, but it is not enough to hold me!” Ketal said as he bared his teeth with a grin.

“We know that,” Karin replied.

They had never believed that Dragon Tongue and spirits alone would be enough to restrain him. They needed physical force that stacked on top of that immaterial restraint.

That was why Karin shouted, “Now!”

Ketal’s eyes widened as something far beyond the haze of heat flared like a small sun and streaked toward him. He grabbed his axe, and the incoming object struck the blade with a sound like the sky splitting open.

It was a spear, blazing with such fierce light that looking at it directly felt painful. Heat so intense that it warped the air washed over the desert, turning the sand beneath Ketal’s feet into glass as his skin prickled and flushed in its radiance.

The temperature rose beyond even the breath of the Red Dragon. Ketal tightened his grip as Aura poured into his axe, and he brought it down in a single decisive motion. The blazing spear shattered against the blade, and fragments of light scattered outward before fading into the air.

He turned his head and smiled. “Saintess of the Sun God, Helia!”

“I knew you would block it,” Helia said as she stepped into view. “But I did not expect you to break it quite that easily.”

Her tone carried a trace of disbelief. What she had thrown was the Radiant Spear, one of the Sun God’s sacred relics. A divine weapon that held a faint reflection of the Sun God’s power. Yet, Ketal had smashed it as if it were nothing. She drew in a steadying breath.

“May the radiance of the high heavens surround me,” she said.

A deep hum filled the air as a barrier of holy light surged upward around Helia, wrapping her in a radiant armor. She lifted one hand.

“Shield that embodies the sun. Protect me,” she called.

A shield shaped like a miniature star formed on her left arm.

“Lance of blazing heat. Pierce my enemy,” she said.

A spear of pure, brilliant light appeared in her right hand.

Three sacred relics manifested at once. The already dry desert lost even the last traces of moisture. The world itself brightened under their glow. Had it been night, travelers far away would have believed that the sun had risen again. That was how overwhelming the radiance was.

“I will attack you now,” Helia said quietly.

Ketal spread his arms wide as if welcoming her. “As much as you wish!”

Helia reached him in an instant, the sharp point of her spear striking his axe with a high, ringing note. Then, his descending axe met the radiant shield of the sun she held before her.

The ground shook. Helia held Ketal in place and matched his movements strike for strike, while Ignisia and Karin used Dragon Tongue and the power of the Spirit King to support her. Their combined strength pressed down on Ketal from all sides.

“Oh!” Ketal said, unable to stop the awe that slipped from him. Dragon Tongue, spirits, and divinity—three entirely different forms of power—melted together and supported one another like the components of a single great ritual.

It was beautiful to watch, and the beauty did not make it any less deadly. The combined force was powerful enough that even Ketal found it difficult to casually break out.

“Impressive. This is not easy to deal with!” he said, and he meant it.

Helia, however, had no room to appreciate his praise. She ground her teeth, her thoughts spinning.

This was absurd!

she cried inwardly.

She was currently clad in three of the Sun God’s sacred relics at once. They were not common holy items. Each one was a special relic personally used by the Sun God, a top-grade artifact among artifacts.

Under normal circumstances, a person who wore even one of these could stand against one of the Four Demon Lords of Hell. Now all three shone upon her, and two more Heroes, Ignisia and Karin, supported her with their powers, focusing entirely on pressing Ketal down and leaving no opening.

The situation could not have been more favorable, yet containing him remained nearly impossible, and even enduring him became a struggle. Every swing of his axe carried a force that felt capable of cleaving the world and shattering divinity itself. If she relaxed even slightly, one of the relics would break under the pressure.

Helia raised her shield and forced herself to stand. Originally, she was supposed to hold Ketal and give the others time to strike him. Instead, she could not find a single chance to attack. Karin and Ignisia were just as surprised, focusing entirely on supporting her and blocking the attacks aimed at her.

How should I handle this?

Ketal wondered. He blocked Helia’s spear and let his thoughts run for a moment.

The simplest way was to draw on the Aura. That power held absolute superiority in terms of affinity. If he truly relied on it, he could likely crush this joint assault without any difficulty.

However, that felt boring. Using a trump card against opponents fighting with everything they had did not suit him. He did not want to be that sort of grown man. After a brief hesitation, Ketal reached a decision.

Attacks should be met with a similar type,

Ketal thought.

“I summon you! Bearer of the primordial purity! I summon you! Who burns away every shade of blackest darkness!”

“What...?” Karin breathed. Her eyes widened as she heard his incantation.

Ketal continued, “Come forth! Horned one bearing the flames of purity. Fiego!”

A shape of flame appeared like a doorway opening in the air. From that burning gate, a massive bull made of molten fire leaped onto the sands.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Ketal had called forth the Legendary spirit, Fiego. He had once formed a contract with it. Now he summoned it to the mortal world.

The fire bull’s expression twisted in shock.

“Wait,” it cried. “What is this? Is that the Spirit King? And an Elder Dragon as well!”

“Fiego, I leave it to you,” Ketal said with a sharp grin. “ I need you to hold the Wind Spirit King for a while.”

“Hold what...?” Fiego said, its voice cracking. Its entire body shook as if it might explode from outrage.

Yet no matter how it felt, Ketal was its contractor. Flames surged from Fiego’s horns and charged toward Minerva.

Minerva scowled and brushed them aside with a sweep of its arm.

“Fiego, what in the world are you doing?” Minerva shouted.

“I am so sorry, Lady Minerva!” Fiego cried, its voice already carrying tears.

Minerva was the Spirit King. To Fiego, Minerva was a monarch among monarchs. Under normal circumstances, even the command of a contractor would not have swayed Fiego. It would simply have returned to the Spirit Realm.

However, Fiego’s contract with Ketal had been forged directly by the Spirit God, Beatrice. Because of that, even in front of the Spirit King, Fiego could not simply ignore its contractor’s summons. With no other choice, it burst its power into the air despite wanting nothing more than to flee.

However, the difference between them was clear. Minerva was the Spirit King, and Fiego was merely a Legendary spirit. Their powers could not be compared.

In an instant, Fiego’s fiery body was torn apart, scorched, and scattered, yet that brief moment was enough. It only needed to buy time.

Deprived of Minerva’s full support for that brief window, Helia immediately began to lose ground. Ignisia, startled, called out in dragon tongue.

“

World, press down!

” Ignisia cried.

The command of the Dragon Tongue erupted with force. The world itself tried to push Ketal into the sand. In response, Ketal laughed and spoke.

“

World, rise up!

” Ketal said as Dragon Tongue flowed from his lips.

His words collided directly with Ignisia’s proclamation, and space fractured as the world split and cracked like glass struck by a hammer.

“How can you use Dragon Tongue?” she began, then corrected herself in her mind. She already knew the answer. She remembered the distant past, the first time she had met him. She had taught him the Dragon Tongue herself.

“My apologies,” Ketal said. “I will pass through for a moment.”

“

Ugh!

” Helia grunted.

Ketal stepped onto Helia’s shoulder and used her as a foothold to launch himself skyward. In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance and appeared right before Ignisia’s nose.

She tried to invoke Dragon Tongue again.

“

World—

” she managed.

“That will be enough from you,” Ketal said. His hand clamped over her muzzle. Her massive jaws, capable of swallowing cities, could not open against the small palm that crushed them together.

“Let us deal with you first,” he said.

His fist sank into her stomach. Her abdomen dented inward. The choked scream that should have burst from her throat had nowhere to go and spun uselessly inside her body.

He struck her head and twisted her neck, and her enormous body began to fall. Ketal rode her descent, planted his foot over her heart, and stomped. The dragon crashed into the desert as sand exploded outward in a great ring.

Helia, rushing toward them, froze in disbelief as she saw Ignisia lying on her back with her belly exposed and her limbs limp. The dragon had fainted.

“All that flying was getting on my nerves,” Ketal said, smiling.

Helia felt a chill creep over her skin. He had knocked out a dragon, a creature that was almost immune to all harm, with a handful of blows thrown in passing.

“In that case, who’s next?” he said.

He kicked off the ground, teeth bared in excitement, and sprinted toward Minerva, who had driven Fiego almost to the brink of forced dismissal. Minerva tried to raise a wall of wind, but Ketal’s fist reached it first. Its body of air burst apart.

As a spirit, it could not be harmed by simple physical attacks, yet Ketal’s punch carried Myst within it. The very structure of Minerva scattered, and it would take time for it to gather itself again.

By then, he was already standing before Karin.

“Miner...” Karin began.

“Sleep,” he said.

His knuckles brushed her head in what looked like a casual tap. Her body went limp like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She toppled to the sand without a sound.

Helia stared, her mouth hanging open. In the span of only a few minutes, two Heroes had been taken out of the fight.

Ketal turned toward her and smiled. “In the end, it is just you now.”

The way he looked at her felt like the gaze of a predator regarding its prey. A shiver ran down Helia’s spine.