The fire came out white-hot and wide, filling the corridor from wall to wall, the heat of it enough to turn stone surfaces orange at the edges.

Lord Vine’s shadow rose around him like a second skin, protecting him from the attack.

The moment the fire slammed into it, the shadow screamed in pain, the sound high pitched and wrong, but the shadow held, absorbing what it could and insulating what it couldn’t.

Noah moved through his own fire, his hand pulled back.

He punched, and his fist slammed into Lord Vine’s face, the impact sending him flying through the wall at the corridor’s end, the stone blasting apart.

He flew into open air before taking control of his own momentum, hovering in the air.

Noah stepped through the hole after him, joining him in the air. Below them, the hybrids were still fighting the palace guards.

He stretched his hand forward and adjusted the gravity in the air around them, the pressure pulling Lord Vine towards him.

As Lord Vine streaked upwards and towards him, Noah brought his hands together and fired.

A giant beam of red light surged from him towards Lord Vine. Lord Vine exerted his strength, managing to free himself from the gravitational pressure and throw himself to the side.

The beam passed through where he’d been, continuing downwards before hitting the ground.

There was a loud explosion as the kinetic energy created a large crater, the impact erasing anything it had touched, and destroying anything near it.

Lord Vine’s roar filled the air above the palace.

The shadows came off him in streams, solidifying as they left, each one becoming a sword and filling the air above him.

They multiplied as they formed, a hundred becoming a thousand, spreading outwards and upwards until they covered the sky above the palace in a canopy of swords.

And with a swing of his hands, they fell.

Noah snapped his fingers.

The sound that followed the snap was not loud. It was a frequency that moved through the air at a specific pitch and interacted with the shadow-blades at the molecular level.

The moment the sound ruptured through them, every one of them shattered simultaneously, the pieces dissolving into nothingness.

Lord Vine came through the dissipating fragments at full speed and swung.

Noah crossed his arms and took the punch on it, feeling the force travel up through his bones and launch him backwards.

He slammed into the palace wall, sending stone flying in every direction as he slammed through it, stopping in another corridor.

Lord Vine floated in through the gap after him, his expression carrying the particular displeasure of someone who had expected more to land.

He looked at Noah across the ruined corridor and something in his posture shifted, the aggression receding slightly into something that wanted to be read as reasonable.

He’d recognized Noah’s strength. That the odds were not in his favor.

“You’re like me,” he said. “I can see it.”

He stepped closer, holding Noah’s gaze.

“You want the world under your feet. To stand above all of it, to be the thing that everything else is measured against.” He spread his hands. “Why are we doing this? Join forces with me. You and I together, we become the apex of everything in Camelot. Everything beyond it.”

Noah looked at him. Then he burst into laughter. A few seconds later, the laughter subsided.

“We’re nothing alike.” He finally said.

Lord Vine’s eyes narrowed.

“I don’t care about any of it,” Noah said. “The throne, the kingdom, the apex of anything. I don’t give a damn about ruling over people.”

“But I do know something.” He tilted his head. “You’re not a predator. You’re just a greedy man who dressed up his greed in a dress called philosophy.” He paused. “A greedy asshole, specifically.”

He stamped his feet into the ground, activating his SS-rank skill.

The King’s Dominion moved outwards from the point of impact in a wave, the energy sweeping through the surrounding rooms and finding every ward, every enchanted artifact, and every stored magical charge within its reach.

It took them apart and consumed them, pulling the mana into him as fuel for his next spell.

Lord Vine could feel the buildup of mana and his expression changed.

“Wait.” His voice lost several layers of composure at once. “We can talk. There are things you don’t know yet, things I can offer you, we don’t have to—”

“No chance,” Noah said.

He fired Utter Annihilation.

Lord Vine moved, fast and desperate, but Noah already activated his gravity, the pressure slamming down from every angle simultaneously, locking him in place.

The attack hit.

Utter Annihilation consumed Lord Vine, or as most knew him as, Thomas Ramsay, doing more than just burning him.

It erased him from existence, targeting his very essence across the past and present, working backwards through time as they went, removing him from the record of things that had existed.

And as it worked, reality began correcting itself.

Now that there was no Thomas Ramsay, Frederick Ramsay ceased to have been born.

The Reunification movement unwound from its origin point, the threads of it pulling back through every consequence it had produced, collapsing into the nothing it had come from.

With no Lord Vine and no Lady in Dark, there was no Reunification.

But more importantly, there was no need for hybrids. The hybrid potions ceased to exist, and those affected by it found themselves in their house as normal humans, feeling as if they’d just woken up from a bad dream.

And since there were no hybrids, there was no need for Hybrid Zero.

That meant Juniper Rowe was never kidnapped. She was never turned. She was simply a relative of Arlo Kael, who was back at home with her family in the aftermath of the monolith outbreak on campus.

But Noah was not aware of any of this.

He stood in the quiet corridor and watched the last of the ash that was his opponent settle.

Then he turned away from it and went to find Cecilia.

***

1 month later.

The celebration had been going on through the capital since morning and showed no signs of stopping.

Noah stood at the window of the grand study, watching it with his hands behind his back, as the crowds moved through the decorated streets beyond the palace walls, with lanterns being strung between the buildings.

The door clicked open and Cecilia walked in still wearing the coronation attire, her new crown sitting on her head.

She crossed the room, reached the desk, and slumped into the chair behind it with a sigh of relief that suggested she’d been waiting to do that for several hours.

Noah glanced over his shoulder with a chuckle. “You’re already this tired after being Queen for one day? How would you handle the remaining days?”

“Try being in these shoes before you say anything else,” she said. “I’m sure you’d somehow run away from everyone.”

He turned back to the window, the laugh bubbling out of him genuine, and she matched it.

A few seconds later, silence filled the air again.

Then Cecilia’s eyes moved to the stack of books piled against the wall beside the window.

Edric’s research, organized as well as Noah had been able to manage given that Edric’s organizational system had apparently been legible only to Edric.

“Any progress on reverse engineering the summoning ritual?”

“Something,” Noah said. “It’s not certain yet. But if it holds up, I think I can find the way back to earth.”

Cecilia was quiet for a moment. “You’re sure that’s what you want?”

“Yes.” Noah answered immediately. He longed to go back home. He didn’t know that one day he’d say this, but he missed the place.

She looked at the desk surface. “I’d have liked you in the war. Against the demons.” She paused. “But I can’t keep you here.”

Silence.

“Will you be alright?” he asked.

She looked up at that, and something moved through her expression that wasn’t quite a smile. “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I have a score to settle with that Demon Lord.”

Memories of the loop surfaced in her mind, her vision seeing the cracked beam, the corridor, the great hall, and the face of Prince Cecil with his back to her, unaware, already becoming what he would become.

Pure hatred filled her mind before she forced it down.

Noah turned back to the window.

The celebration continued below, loud and unaware of itself, filling the streets of a city that was still standing.

He smiled at the sight.

Camelot would be fine.

It had Cecilia.

THE END

***

A/N: We have finally come to the end of Dark Dragon.

When I started this book, I made two promises. The first was to deliver at least 300 chapters. The second was to complete this book. I’m proud to say I’ve fulfilled both promises.

Of course, I never meant to stop here, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this is where our journey shall end.

Before we conclude, I want to use this opportunity to give a special shout-out to a few special readers.

Dax_Chaney, I see you. Thank you for being my number one fan.

Ave_muse, Swedishstorm, Cody_Irmen, Joshsidhe, AsherJ, Redghost91, and jmharris998. I award you the special reader trophy. You stuck with me, even when the schedule of the next chapter was uncertain and unstable. Thank you.

I can’t end this without mentioning Nebulas_Juli. I’ve seen your footprint in every work I have, and I appreciate your constant gifts. I thank you and appreciate your dedication.

And finally, to everyone who spent time reading this book, I thank you for your support.

If you enjoyed this book, then I shall recommend checking out my next work, Gacha Harem System.

This is the story of a transmigrator stuck in a world full of monsters, and only Climbers, humans with powerful classes, hold them at bay.

After awakening a weak class, he is granted the Gacha Harem System, which allows him to pull wives from across existence.

He gets to copy the class, skills, and stats of his wives, slowly becoming the most powerful Climber in his new world.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Hope to see you there!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep