If before the dragon was high nine in terms of power and my own hit mid nine now it was at the peak on the verge of going beyond and I was still at mid nine. I could still do damage and in theory even kill it. To do that though the dragon would basically have to stand fucking still and let me. Which is to say the ass whooping coming my way was not surprising at all. I got clawed in half by the dragon in an instant and barely managed to pull myself together before I had to panic dodge the cavernous maw coming to chomp on me.-

Even at top speed the dragon harried my ass like a magnet on metal with no breathing room at all. Claws, breath attacks, chomps, wing slaps, tail whips the thing was going all out as the city was ruined beyond repair as each movement sent earth shaking shockwaves in every direction. The only semi intact thing was the suspicious metal structure that had been buried beneath where Daedalus street used to be. Babel was the first casualty of our clash over the city.-

The tower had been erased entirely from both a breath attack and just the shockwaves hammering it. The stairs to the dungeon were exposed to the sky for the first time in many many years as everyone left topside fled into the dungeon to escape death. I did my best, truly I did but after Haruhime’s magic wore off merely staying alive was draining me of every drop of energy I had. The dragon was annoyed by my regeneration to say the least and clearly decided that it would keep killing me until I stopped getting back up.-

I barely managed to get tail whipped into the dungeon at the end of this last exchange but my state was truly wretched. On the verge of mind zero, body regenerated more times than I could count, weapon gone, dignity gone, pride broke. All that was left was the tired resolve to enact my final resort method. The dragon occupied itself with trying to remove the wall that was the only thing still standing of the great city while I limped to where I thought Hestia was.-

“ALEX!” She yelled teary eyed as I rounded the corner.

She tackle hugged me while ignoring my state of undress.

“Hestia.” I said softly sorrow in my voice “I need your help to defeat the dragon.” I said tears pooling in my eyes as I choked down my unwillingness.

“What?” she asked confused as her red eyes looked up at me.

“I need you to unlock my falna like you were updating it. And I need that item I gave you before.” I said unable to meet her eyes.

“W-what are you saying? I don’t understand!” she demanded hysterically.

I looked into her eyes and she shuddered “Yes you do. You’ve know for some time now what that thing was, what it did.” I said softly.

“NO! I refuse! You can’t, not that! I-I won’t let you!” she said shaking her head hysterically as she wept.

“Hestia!” I said more firmly and she froze.

“It’s not fair! Why!? There has to be another way!” she screamed and beat on my chest but I just hugged her with my only remaining arm.

“I’m sorry. There is no other way to end this. Eventually the dragon will come down here. I know this now. It’s time.” I said resolving myself for what was coming.

“I know. I hate you for making me do it though!” she said with a sob.

“I’ll accept your hate. I deserve it.” I said as I let her go and sat on the ground with my back to her.

A drop of hotness hit my back and I felt my falna open but nothing happened beyond that as I stood up again. I held out my hand and a pair of soft quivering hands placed an object in it. It was a dagger with two blades like the tongs of a fork parallel to each other. One side was brilliant white with ominously glowing red blood-like script covering it’s flats. –

The other side was black as the void and it’s flats had holy feeling glowing blue script. The two blades met at the guard and entwined together in a spiral around a very special glowing stone that formed the handle. The stone was clear like glass but held a bright flickering rainbow colored spark that made the very world around it heavy. I didn’t look back as I walked to the stairs of the dungeon floor with this blade in hand. Each step felt heavy and my mind ran through each of the faces I held dear.-

I reached the surface as the dragon was angrily slamming it’s claws into the wall that refused to break for it. The beast seemed to ignore me and dismissed me as a threat as it was more interested in showing the stubborn wall why it was the strongest. It would have almost been funny to me any other time, not this one. I looked up at the vast sea of cursed energy overhead that was lazily flowing around and my face hardened as I steeled myself and plunged the dagger I held into my heart.-

The world trembled as the blade erupted in light, then SCREAMED.

The sea of cursed energy swirled like a violent hurricane and began to descend like a horde of demons clawing through the world to the handle of the blade sticking out of my chest. This stopped the dragon in it’s tracks as it one eye narrowed as an old almost forgotten feeling arose from within it.

FEAR

I saw this for only a brief moment before a rainbow colored sphere of energy enclosed me and my mind darkened.

(3rd person POV)

The pulsing growing orb of energy lifted off the ground as the vast sea of cursed energy flooded into it and hung in the sky like a second sun. The great dragon wasted no time unleashing it’s strongest breath attack at the orb in hope of stopping what was happening but the beam sank into the hungry orb like a drop of water in a puddle. Nothing was stopped, nothing could stop it. Proud and arrogant from never having lost the dragon didn’t try and flee but stood waiting at it’s strongest state for what it felt coming.-

Soon the entirety of the sea of cursed energy was sucked into the orb and it’s fluctuations stabilized. Like a pearl it hung in the sky for a few moment before “CRACK!” a single fracture appeared on it like an eggshell. More and more cracks appeared on it until it exploded and revealed what lay within. The general shape was human but there were many inhuman features. Deep ebony skin with glowing white marks like the tattoos that previously were there. A gaping hollow in the center of the torso with jagged obsidian edges and a burning white flame within that cavity. The ends of each finger and toe was a black, dense and sharp claw. Each hand had seven fingers and each knee and elbow had a spike of obsidian black coming out of it. –

The figure had two almost bat-like wings folded against it’s back covered in radiant silver feathers. It’s head was not much different than before transformation save three details. It had two long curved horns on either side of it’s forehead and a single extra eye vertically in between them. Above it’s scalp of long silver hair floated a white crown of flames. The beings eyes snapped open to reveal three slitted pupils, one in each eye.-

The being opened it’s grand wings and a pressure filled the world suppressing it before it vanished. The being moved so fast it exceeded time itself and before the world could even process it’s movement struck a fist against the dragons flank. 

“BOOOOM!”

The space shattered into chaos as the dragon was launched like a meteor away from the city. The atmosphere burned as the body of the beast flew through it and crashed into a far mountain with calamitous impact. Even still it wasn’t dead as it’s flank was collapsed and it dripped copious amounts of blood from it’s maw. The being appeared again far above the world in the void and shot down towards the dragon. The apocalyptical impact of it’s feet crushing the dragon tore the continent in half as it drilled it down further and further.-

The dragon was dead with this and exploded into a sea of black smoke that flowed into the beings flaming cavity. Despite that however the being curiously didn’t grow stronger but rapidly began to experience fractures through out it’s body. It moved softly and reappeared above the ruins of Orario as Hestia came out of the dungeon.-

She wailed in sorrow as the being landed gently not far from her and collapsed as it’s legs crumbled and blew away as dust in the wind. It’s wings and limbs were the first to go. It’s torso with those white dimming flames were next and soon only it’s head was left staring at the grieving goddess. With a final use of it’s strength before it faded away the being grinned at her and crumbled to dust.

FINISH

{After note: Hello everyone. Did you cry? Rage? Maybe curse a little or a lot? I’d like to say that wasn’t intended but I’d be lying. I usually write endings were everything works out great for the main character but from the beginning I was setting up this story for this end. Alex was always slated to give everything to destroy the dragon. I had been setting up little hints like a LONG ass time about how too. A few of you got a few parts of this plan right too along the way but the whole puzzle was just outta reach. I loved writing this story though, truly. I genuinely teared up a bit as I wrote this chapter. How could I not? It’s like losing a dear friend i’ve been there with since the start of their journey. I hope you all can appreciate the effort to write this ending I put in and I thank you for witnessing it.

Sincerely

LOSKRO}

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep