Quit The Hero Party

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EP.499 The Heavenly (天惠) Subjugation War (3)

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Whoosh! The black water evaporated.

At the moment the black water evaporated, Belnoa sensed something approaching. However, the phenomenon occurred faster than Belnoa had anticipated. Swoosh, darkness swallowed the underground space.

Poof! The light vanished.

The radiance emitted by Ayla, Chloe, Resti, and Natida disappeared in an instant. With the light gone, sound faded too. Nothing could be seen or heard. Complete silence settled into the darkness.

In the stillness, Belnoa sharpened her senses.

Although nothing could be seen or heard, she could feel the rumbling of the ground and the flow of air. Among them, there was particularly rough movement. The size of an adult male. In his hand was a long spear… a Braver.

Chasing the presence of Acrita, Belnoa moved.

Goddess.

No answering voice could be heard.

Silence swallowed even the goddess’s voice, but it could not consume her power. Tee-Di-Dik, scales of a dragon sprouted along Belnoa’s arm up to her shoulder.

…Complete dragon transformation.

The changed arm would not return.

But it didn’t matter. She had come to the battlefield prepared to sacrifice at least one arm. With her fully transformed dragon arm, Belnoa pursued the aura.

As a part of her body became fully dragon, Belnoa’s senses sharpened further.

With beast-like instincts, Belnoa kicked off the ground and leaped. In an instant, she overtook the Braver and glided to stand before him. She swung her arm at him.

Kaaang!

At the moment the spear clashed with claws, the darkness lifted just a bit. The sound of spear and dragon claws colliding echoed far and wide. Even though nothing was visible, Belnoa focused on the sounds and air currents to read the next strike.

Clang, Kaang, Clang!

Every time the dragon claws and spear clashed, her arm tingled. Something was wrapped around the spearhead. A spell? She couldn’t tell. The Braver continued to push Belnoa back, aiming to move elsewhere, but she stubbornly held on.

Before long, the darkness was lifting.

The starlight ignited by Ayla pushed back the darkness, gradually clearing Belnoa’s vision. Ahead was visible. In her limited sight was the figure of the Braver.

Belnoa’s claws moved.

Kiiying, a compressed storm shot toward the Braver. He twisted his body, slammed the spear into the ground, and leapt into the air to evade the storm. As he lifted off the ground, the Braver swung the spear in midair.

Spells, necromancy, sorcery.

Instantly manifested spells were fired at Belnoa. Some were blocked by her dragon arm, others she dodged, gritting her teeth.

What a troublesome opponent.

The enemy she faced was a masterful warrior who had reached superhuman levels, a Great Mage, a Necromancer, and a top-tier Sorcerer. The moment she made a mistake, he would bypass her and charge at Chloe and the rear guards.

If that happened, it would be the end.

At the very least, she needed to hold him back while this black fog lingered. How? While pondering, Belnoa moved to catch Acrita in midair.

That was the moment.

Aaring, a black ring enveloped Belnoa’s body. Belnoa recognized this spell. Spatial transfer. With wide eyes, she tore the encircling ring apart with her dragon claws.

And when she shifted her gaze…

The Braver was pulling his arm back in the sky.

A spearhead engulfed by black lightning glowed ominously. The Braver swung his arm. With a Crack! like thunder, the spear descended diagonally toward Belnoa.

…This is dangerous.

That spearhead could pierce even through dragon scales.

Gritting her teeth, Belnoa twisted her body. She swung her arm to deflect the incoming spearhead’s trajectory. Ka-Kakak! Dragon scales tore off in chunks, but Belnoa managed to alter the spear’s course.

That was the moment.

“Look at that.”

Acrita chuckled.

“You should’ve blocked it instead of dodging.”

…Block instead of dodge?

What do you mean by that? Just as Belnoa tried to charge at the Braver, it happened.

Crunch!

From behind, she could hear the sound of a protective barrier shattering, followed by the sound of someone collapsing. Belnoa turned to look. Swallowed by the black fog, she couldn’t see those behind her…

Shwoooosh!

Finally, the fog lifted, revealing the scene.

Along with her clearing vision came screams.

“…Chloe!”

The scream of Saint Natida.

Belnoa’s eyes shook. Where the fog had lifted, there lay Chloe, collapsed. The spear had pierced through Chloe’s abdomen. With a gag, Chloe coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“You should watch your back. Right?”

Acrita sneered.

He pretended to grasp at the air. The spear embedded in Chloe’s abdomen twisted, tearing the wound further. As the spear was pulled out, it returned to Acrita in a bizarre arc.

Swish,
Acrita flicked the blood off the spear.

Chloe’s agonized moans echoed through the air. With a thud, she coughed up blood again. It was a fatal wound—she could drop dead any moment.

Blood.

The advancing Braver.

Belnoa’s breathing became ragged. With her breath growing uneven, her vision swayed. Before Belnoa could even consider a halt from the goddess, dragon scales Tee-Di-Dik, wound themselves around her neck.

The scales that sprouted, taking root in Belnoa’s body, brushed against one of her eyes.

Gold mixed in with her black gaze. With a crunch, she swung her dragon arm. At the moment she swung, the dragon scales peeled off completely. As her blood splattered onto the ground…

Kwah! Ka-Kagagagagag!

A storm fiercer than ever before swirled around Belnoa and the subjugation force. The black gale struck back at Acrita. Swallowing all the spells fired by Skebal, it formed a tornado of storm.

Thud.

As dragon scales fell away and muscles tore, revealing the dragon bones, Belnoa quickly turned around. There stood Chloe, spitting blood, and Natida cradling her.

Natida was also covered in wounds.

If she stretched her vision a bit longer, she would see Ayla and Resti at the forefront, panting and drenched in blood. Since the darkness had come, Belnoa had been chasing the Braver, while they battled Skebal in the dark.

All around lay the remnants of broken spells.

Gritting her teeth, Belnoa glanced back at Natida. Watching her try to heal Chloe, she spoke.

“…Chloe is.”

“I can save her. But…”

Natida bit her lip tightly.

“My holy magic isn’t suitable for healing. To recover from such wounds, I would have to redirect all my holy magic toward healing…”

If that happened, then all blessings and support would vanish.

If even the saint’s blessing were to disappear in this situation, the tides of battle that had already started to tilt would completely overturn. Moreover, Chloe was in a state where she couldn’t act right now.

“…”.

Belnoa looked silently at Chloe.

Chloe was gazing at her with hazy eyes. Every time black lightning sparked from her abdomen, she coughed up blood.

At this rate, Chloe would die. They would all die.

Belnoa gritted her teeth.

A solution was needed. She needed time to think of a method. But the opposing force wouldn’t grant her that luxury. A fierce presence could be felt from beyond the raging storm. The flow of power was gathering in one place.

Skebal was preparing something.

A blow that would pierce through the storm, a strike that an incomplete god was preparing to unleash. The thinning storm would not be able to stop it.

…No, that’s not true.

There was a way. Belnoa looked at her own arm. The arm with dragon scales peeling off and bones revealed. With such an arm, she couldn’t do it… but Belnoa knew there was a way.

But…

She had made a promise.

To Chloe, and to her goddess.

“…I can’t.”

The moment Belnoa hesitated briefly.

Twitch, Chloe made a sound through trembling lips. Belnoa turned to look at her. She was extending a trembling hand toward her.

No, Belnoa.

Though her broken words were hard to hear, through her lips, Belnoa could tell what she was saying. Chloe knew what Belnoa was contemplating. Knowing that, she would likely try to dissuade her.

No, Belnoa. Don’t go.

Chloe reached out her hand toward Belnoa.

As Belnoa watched that hand, she bitterly smiled. Even without a firm resolution, paradoxically, seeing Chloe trying to stop her solidified her own resolve.

“I’m sorry, Chloe.”

Belnoa, who had always held onto Chloe’s outstretched hand, now turned away from her. For her sake, to protect her, Belnoa turned away.

…They all stood on the battlefield, risking their lives.

With her back turned, Belnoa took a step forward.

She moved away from Chloe.

…And, she had a little bit more she could carry than others.

Ayla and Resti, who stood at the forefront, glanced back at Belnoa. The two who understood the current situation hesitated to say anything but eventually fell silent after seeing Belnoa’s expression.

Thud.

Ayla and Resti stepped back.

As they moved back, Belnoa took another step forward. The one at the forefront, before calling on the goddess’s name, the goddess moved first.

[…].

The goddess silently stood beside Belnoa.

The slowly flowing time froze the moment the goddess looked at Belnoa. When the goddess glanced into Belnoa’s eyes, she smiled bitterly.

[In the end, it comes to this, my contractor.]

The goddess knew what her contractor was thinking.

It was the expression of someone who had made a resolution, and it mirrored the expression of her previous contractor at the very end.

[Didn’t you promise?]

Not to become like your predecessor.

That you would never forsake yourself.

Didn’t you make that promise to me?

To that question, Belnoa replied briefly.

“I’m sorry.”

That was an apology, as well as a refusal to the goddess’s concern. The goddess smiled painfully.

[Very well.]

No further persuasion was required.

After all, this was a foreseen event. The hem of the Lord of Shadow Dragons fluttered. She began to return not in a restricted form but to her true self.

[Are you ready?]

Belnoa was about to respond directly when she sealed her lips.

“To be honest, I’m scared.”

[Is that so?]

“I’m afraid of losing myself. I’m afraid of not being able to distinguish between right and wrong and of breaking what I cherish with my own hands. Becoming something else while still being me… scares me.”

[That would be understandable.]

“But.”

Belnoa smiled.

“There’s something even scarier.”

With that smile, Belnoa placed everything on the scales that emerged before her. In that moment, the once balanced scales completely tipped.

[Belial said the same thing to you.]

The goddess smiled wistfully.

[Something more precious than life itself. Things you must achieve even if it means losing yourself and forsaking who you are. You would accept that terrible ending, becoming a beast of ignorance for it.]

How foolish and lovely they were.

With a gentle sigh, the goddess’s hem billowed out.

Her hair like a starry night cascaded down her gown. Having returned to her original form, the goddess wrapped her arms around Belnoa’s neck. The dragon eyes emerging between her thick eyelashes were filled with sorrow.

[Therefore, I cannot turn my back on you.]

She was the oldest goddess, having been influenced by humans as she listened to their wishes. The Lord of Shadow Dragons, the first goddess who granted the desires of humans.

The most human-like goddess embraced Belnoa.

[You will miss me, Belnoa.]

She reached out and placed her fingertip on the high side of the tilted scales. Her slender finger pressed down, bringing the scales back into balance.

Whoosh.

From beneath Belnoa’s feet, shadows surged up.

The rising shadows enveloped Belnoa’s body. With the sound of something being peeled away, her flesh began to crumble.

[Did you say you were afraid of breaking your precious things, Belnoa?]

“Yes.”

[I won’t be able to take away all your fears, but I’ll take away that one. You will not have to worry about becoming a beast that will tear into that girl.]

I won’t allow it.

As Belnoa’s neck began to change, the goddess whispered.

[I will stay with you until the end. I will become your master and show you who your true enemies are. That is the last mercy your goddess can bestow upon you.]

Ah, goddess.

[My child.]

The pride of the goddess, the blade of her goddess, her most loyal shadow, her great warrior, the primordial giant dragon…

[Just fulfill your wishes.]

Sing the goddess’s rage.

——

A silent gust of wind wrapped around the human bodies. As the wind passed, it turned into a storm. A storm fiercer than anything else.

The black storm.

In an instant, the storm grew fierce.

Skebal and Acrita knit their brows.

But their task remained unchanged. Skebal offered the darkness that rose before him in exchange. He condensed, condensed, and condensed the debt he owed, swallowing it greedily.

The debt was paid.

With a flash of light for a moment, what appeared before Skebal was a massive flame burning black. Whether it was the violent storm or anything else, the fire demon overshadowed the underground space.

There would be no ash left where it passed. Stella summoned the petals of the stars to consume all in flames.

With a fierce heat, the flames engulfed the storm. They would burn to death before those flames extinguished, no matter how much time passed. That was the moment Skebal let out a laugh. Something moved within the flames.

A massive presence stirred within the blaze.

The indomitable flames that wouldn’t extinguish swirled around with the movements of the immense figure. What emerged from the flames was a being so large that Skebal had to look upward to see it.

The Black Dragon.

The giant dragon carrying the black storm opened its eyes.

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