Chapter 218: Battle for Salvation (XII)

The throne room felt like the inside of a lantern. The ancient and mysterious lamps in this room hadn’t gone off since the start and they didn’t plan to anytime soon, always keeping this place illuminated.

Two of the six ancient chairs were kindling. The golden tiles were cratered in three places. Four of the Seven pillars had partial fractures running from floor to midpoint, the structural stone groaning under the weight of cracks.

The room that was once pristine had turned to a wreck.

Covered in glistering golden blood that glowed faintly in the warm light, the dragon rose.

Slowly, with deliberateness. Two of his four wings were gone and the stumps where they had been were wet with golden blood that ran down his back and dripped steadily onto the ruined floor.

His golden eyes found Ishiki across the wreckage.

Ishiki was standing… he was not sure exactly how. The Berserker’s Effigy was in a bad shape… the chest plate held together by the vestige’s structural intention alone, the left shoulder was entirely gone, the back had a collection of cracks.

But he was standing, with the scythe in his hand. For some baffling reason… there was not even a drop of blood on the blade, as if that thing was repelling his blood.

The dragon’s brows furrowed.

They looked at each other for the length of a full breath.

Then both of them moved at the same time.

It was just a direct forward charge… the dragon’s two remaining wings spreading half-open as he crossed the distance, using the downstroke to add force to the tackle.

Ishiki had only covered half as much distance as the dragon, and at the last moment before the strike connected, he threw himself sideways.

The dragon stopped his fist mid way and tackled with his shoulder, the attack caught Ishiki off guard at an angle. Ishiki spun, armor screeching against the floor, and fetched up against the base of one of the cracked pillars. The impact drove a sound out of him that he didn’t want to make.

He pushed himself up from the pillar’s base.

And stopped as he looked at his hands.

His hand gauntlet was covered in red glistering blood out of nowhere. He hadn’t felt a wound open… The armor had taken everything, or he had thought it had, and the minor cuts from the spikes and the wall impacts shouldn’t account for—

’That much. Its too much for simple cuts!’

He stared at it for a fraction of a second and there was only one reasonable answer to this. He was bleeding from somewhere he couldn’t identify!

’…Later.’ He didn’t have time to think about such things.

He filed it away and stood fully.

The dragon had recovered from the charge and turned back toward him. His pristine face was now covered with an expression of frustration and anger.

The unease that Ishiki had felt from the moment he entered this place had now reached a new peak. The dragon was still not using his healing powers.

But he shrugged. It was not a bad thing for me… if anything it provided him with an advantage.

He moved first this time.

He activated [Soul Chain] and bound the Shinobi’s soul to his body. Instantly he felt the surge of power in his body.

He didn’t let the scythe lead— that was what the dragon expected now, that his opponent would rely on the reach and curved blade making close approach dangerous.

Instead he dismissed the scythe entirely and kept his both hands free. He closed the gap in a dead sprint while the dragon was still reading the absence of the weapon.

But that was exactly what was Ishiki doing… he was trying to distract the opponent, while he silently let the divine blood circle across the whole throne room and behind the enemy.

The [Divine Blood] can act independent of the host’s body!

The dragon’s pupil shrank when he realized something was amiss. He turned around and found a spike the size of his forearm moving towards him.

He jumped up to avoid it… but Ishiki was already behind him, with [Sorrow’s Edge] moving down.

Having nowhere left to go and not having his wings to fly. The dragon had no choice but to take the attacks head on. He let the spike pierce his side and focused entirely on Ishiki’s attack.

He intercepted the boy’s attack by hitting at his wrist and caught him by the head. He tightened his grip, smacked Ishiki’s head into the ground once… creating a crater and then threw his body towards the other side.

After that he finally noticed that the spike had turned into a jelly like substance and traced back to the demon’s body… while his left hand was covered in weird purple flames.

His instincts screamed at him to get rid of it and to that he cut off his own left arm and threw it away.

The arm that had detached from his body vanished before it even hit the ground, without leaving anything behind.

He fell to one knee because of much exertion and blood loss. This was the first time an enemy had actually been able to make him bow down to one knee.

Then he looked up.

And smiled.

It was not a pleasant smile, something much older and much more direct that before.

He placed one hand on the floor and pushed himself to his feet.

Across from him… Ishiki was bleeding badly from behind his head. He was dizzy and his vision had gone cloudy. But he was still conscious and he could still fight.

His left arm was done for… he couldn’t feel it anymore.

[Soul Chain – 10 seconds]

The notification reminded him that he would probably pass out after 10 seconds so he got to do something within that time limit.

He instantly turned into a sprint and summoned the Divine blood to turn into the Scythe once again.

The dragon too tried to run, but he couldn’t.

His body felt… heavy. Distant and a little disjointed.

Ishiki had already closed the distance and attacked the with the scythe. But the Dragon caught the scythe just below the blade and spun around at the place where he was sending Ishiki’s frail body crashing into several pillars and then finally into a chair.

Both of the dragon’s knees hit the ground.

“How! What is happening??”

He clearly had no idea what was happening with him right now. Suddenly he felt a shadow over his body and he looked up.

He looked up at Ishiki. At the demon who looked at him with its terrible blue eyes.

And for the first time since the fight began — since Ishiki had stepped out from behind that pillar with the scythe in his hand and announced exactly what he intended to do, the expression in those golden eyes had changed.

It was something that Ishiki had felt many times. It was the expression of fear. It was the expression of inevitability.

The dragon opened his mouth.

Whatever he intended to say, he did not finish it… his mouth stopped in its tracks like a rock.

Ishiki looked at the dragon, his expression shadowed by the dark mask, that was lined with myriad of spike like teeth.

“Rest Within me!”

That was all he said before the scythe’s blade cleanly severed the Dragon’s head.

[You have Slain a Level 86, Elite Human]

[You have Received 12,000 Data Fragments]

He watched the head roll down in silence and then dismissed the Divine Blood, Berserker’s Effigy and the Hard Nub.

Ishiki bent down across the dragon’s head and pulled out the Orb from his forehead.

At that moment, the timer of [Soul Chain ] hit zero and he felt a sudden burst of agony through his every single cell.

He felt as if he was breaking into multiple shards and then glued again with his mind being sentient.

“Well done, Ishiki.”

The voice came from behind him.

It was familiar in a way that made the back of his neck go cold.

“I knew you could do it.”

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