Chapter 287: The Dragon's Wrath

  The spear in the Temple Knight's hand was already bent, and blood was seeping from the space between his thumb and index finger. He had blocked the arrow, but the immense impact force shattered his Battle Qi and momentum, which had been thrown into chaos by the sudden shock to his spirit. He was sent flying backward by the collision. Fortunately, this raw power did not cause significant injury.

  At this moment, the swords of the other two Temple Knights had reached the red-haired woman. Although their momentum and killing intent had weakened significantly due to the previous chaos, this was, after all, a combined strike from two Temple Knights, two of the most elite human warriors. The lethality of these two strikes was not much less than that of a Minotaur's giant axe.

  The red-haired woman was coughing. Although anger and killing intent had already appeared in her yellow eyes, her expression seemed even more listless after that roar. But in this weakened state, she still extended two fists to meet the two Temple Knights.

  Even the shortest sword, plus the length of a Temple Knight's arm, was definitely longer than the woman's fist. Moreover, these were two magical longswords, each over a meter long themselves. The two Temple Knights did not hesitate in the slightest, maintaining their thrusting posture towards the woman. Before the red-haired woman's fists could strike them, these two swords were enough to impale her completely.

  But they immediately saw the woman's fists continuously enlarging before their eyes. Then, with two 'thuds', the enlarged fists struck their chests. The Radiant Battleplate dented in two large craters, and the two Temple Knights were simultaneously sent flying.

  The enlargement of the fists was not a visual effect; the fists had genuinely grown larger and longer. This was how they managed to strike the two Temple Knights before their swords could land. As the red-haired woman swung, her two arms had become thick and long, and the black tight leather armor on them had transformed into a layer of black scales covering all the skin. However, these two arms were left with two deep wounds as they knocked the two Temple Knights flying. The black scales were torn open, revealing bleeding flesh. At the instant they were struck, the Temple Knights had changed their straight thrusts into horizontal slashes. Although the black scales and flesh on the arms were incredibly tough, the magical longswords, infused with Battle Qi, could cut through even steel.

  It wasn't just her arms that had changed. The red-haired woman was now gone. In her place was only a massive, black body that was rapidly expanding.

  Black scales, like age-old dark iron, gleamed with a dark and lustrous sheen, covering a massive and elongated body. On its back was a pair of huge, fleshy wings. Its head was like that of a crocodile, ferocious yet exuding more majesty. A pair of giant yellow eyes radiated an aura of looking down upon all living creatures.

  "Moriel." The several Minotaur priests in the back all let out the same roar. Although they had long guessed the true identity of this strange red-haired woman, when they saw the true form of this massive body with their own eyes, the shock from the depths of their souls made them unable to help but roar out.

  This was the guardian god of the Drow, the most powerful creature in Nighon, the power behind the throne, the Black Dragon Moriel.

  Legend had it that there were many such powerful beings in ancient times, but in the present day, she was the only dragon whose existence could be confirmed on the entire continent. She was perhaps also the most powerful creature on this continent.

  But now, in the eyes of this most powerful creature, which could originally look down on all other life, there was a look of shock and anger. It was not just because of the wounds on her two front claws. It was also because she saw a sword, a massive sword formed purely from condensed white light.

  The three Temple Knights who had just been sent flying had not yet landed. A giant sword of light, shaped like a cross, had already shot through the air towards Moriel, who had just reverted from her human form to her dragon body. In the center of this giant sword of light was the figure of the Paladin, Lancelot. This giant sword was a strike in which he had condensed all of his Battle Qi and strength.

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  Wilskey's first arrow was just a prelude. The combined strike of the three Temple Knights that followed was merely an interlude. Lancelot's full-power strike, the Holy Light Cross Sword, was the true climax.

  The coordination between the Temple Knights long ago ceased to need words or arrangements. When they saw the red-haired woman, Moriel's incarnation, flying backward, they knew exactly how to attack to achieve the best and most lethal effect.

  Wilskey's arrow and the combined strike of the three Temple Knights were merely means to wear down the opponent. They had long known who their opponent was and that no matter their full-power strikes, they were unlikely to be truly effective. So, all they could do was set the stage. The strongest strike would naturally be delivered by the strongest of them, Lancelot, at the very end.

  All the Minotaur priests closed their eyes and covered their ears. The white light from the Holy Light Cross Sword was dazzlingly bright, and the sound it emitted made them mistakenly believe that the cavern had been completely shattered by this giant sword of light.

  The Black Dragon's massive body had not yet recovered from the sudden transformation. Furthermore, the two previous defensive attacks had also pushed her stamina to its limit. Whether to dodge or to block, she no longer had the strength to move.

  A strange dragon's cry came from Moriel's mouth. Although it was a single sound, it seemed to be an overlap of countless tiny syllables. Following this dragon's cry, a wall of ice, a wall of earth, a wall of fire, and a barrier of pure lightning instantly appeared in mid-air, stacked on top of each other, blocking the path of the rapidly approaching Holy Light Cross Sword. At the same time, several thick bolts of lightning and ice spikes also shot towards the Paladin.

  To be able to instantly cast spells from all four elemental schools—earth, water, fire, and wind—with just a single soft chant was an incredible feat. Although these were not particularly advanced spells, any mage on the continent who witnessed this scene would be stunned for a good long while and then have to go back and restudy the fundamental theories of magic.

  But this masterpiece, which would make any mage feel ashamed, had little effect at this moment. Both the lightning and ice spikes dissipated completely upon striking the periphery of the sword of light. The four stacked elemental barriers, like thin glass, shattered before the immense and boundless sharpness of the sword of light.

  With a cracking sound, crimson blood gushed out like a torrential flood against the pure white holy light. Then, a mournful dragon's cry pierced through the entire underground world of Nighon.

  Talise was still clutching Aimee tightly in her arms. A faint glow illuminated her face, her expression shifting between angry and ferocious, and then to numb and confused. Her long hair was disheveled and scattered, her clothes haphazardly draped over her. She no longer had any of her usual valiant and heroic bearing.

  Aimee was curled up in Talise's arms like a small kitten, gently biting her lip. Her large eyes blinked, showing a dazed and strange expression. She was smart and could tell what had just happened, although she found it hard to believe and was unwilling to accept it.

  Ethan had not been gone for long. The tremors on the ground and the immense elemental fluctuations from below had ceased. Except for a strange warmth still radiating from the ground, everything here had returned to its initial calm. The sound of the rushing river was the only noise. The two of them just held each other, motionless.

  Suddenly, a loud cry came from deep within the earth. Although it was piercingly mournful, the undeniable majesty within it instantly startled the two of them awake.

  "What happened? What was that sound?" Aimee asked, trembling a little with fear. The sound carried a strange, compelling force, shaking her sensitive nerves.

  Talise also snapped out of her daze. She looked in the direction of the sound, hesitated for a moment, then looked at Aimee in her arms and said, "Let's leave this place quickly."

  "But Brother Ethan..." Aimee also looked in the direction of the sound, which was the direction Ethan had left.

  A strange expression flashed across Talise's face before she said woodenly, "Never mind him. Everything is strange around here now. There might be danger. I have to get you out of here."

  Aimee hesitated, seemingly unsure of what to say. Suddenly, her gaze fell upon the ground not far away, and she asked in surprise, "Huh, sister, look, what is that?"

  It seemed to have been caused by the strange tremors and elemental fluctuations from earlier. The ground there had sunk in a large area, and a sizable crack had opened in the center. A faint glow of firelight seemed to be seeping out from below. When the two of them walked to the edge of the crack, they could even faintly hear sounds coming from below.

  It turned out that below was not solid bedrock, but a larger cavern space separated by a layer of rock. And judging from the sounds, it seemed much more lively down there than up here. It was just that both of them had been preoccupied by the river and their distracted state of mind, so they hadn't noticed.

  "Stop him, stop him quickly!" When High Priest Tima saw that Temple Knight and the scroll in his hand, he completely lost his usual composure and roared.

  There was no need for him to shout. At the same moment it spotted the Temple Knight, a beam of light as thick as an arm erupted from the pupil of the Beholder Chieftain's giant eye and shot towards the Temple Knight on the rock wall.

  The scroll in the Temple Knight's hand had not yet had time to unroll. When he saw the Beholder's giant pupil turn towards him, he had to leap into the air to dodge. With a soft 'sizzle' sound, the beam of light burned a large hole in the rock wall.

  "Don't let him use that scroll! That's the Light type Forbidden Spell, Purgatory of Paradise!" High Priest Tima's resonant voice echoed across the entire battlefield, and even many Minotaurs and Drow who were in the heat of battle were stunned for a moment.

  Just from the slight magical fluctuation that had leaked out as the scroll was about to be unrolled, High Priest Tima had already understood what it was. Two hundred years ago, during the great war between Nighon and the Church, such a Forbidden Spell scroll had appeared, turning thousands of Nighon troops to ash. Tima, who was not yet a High Priest back then, had witnessed the power of those monstrous white flames with his own eyes. The magic fluctuation that destroyed everything was something he could never forget.