Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 454

Chapter 454: Where did the time go?

The chamber held its breath as dragon and master stared at each other across the ruins of their battlefield. Nyx’s massive head remained fixed on Noah’s position, those unnaturally white eyes showing no trace of the bond they’d forged through countless battles. Smoke curled from the dragon’s nostrils in steady streams, each exhalation a reminder of the fire that could incinerate Noah in seconds.

Noah’s grip on Excaliburn loosened until the mythic sword clattered to the stone floor. The sound echoed through the tense silence like a funeral bell. He raised his hand slowly, palm facing outward in a gesture that could have been surrender or desperate hope.

“Nyx,” Noah whispered, his voice barely audible. “It’s me.”

The Red Death Dragon’s chest began to expand.

That strange sound started building again deep in Nyx’s throat, a rumbling that seemed to originate from the molten core of the earth itself. The scales along his neck and chest began to glow, first cherry red, then orange, then white-hot as the Magma Bomb technique charged to devastating levels.

Arthur stood behind the dragon, yellow eyes blazing with concentration as he maintained his mental hold. Blood trickled from his nose, and his extended hand trembled with visible effort. The beast taming abilities of the Marrick bloodline were clearly pushing him to his limits, but his control remained firm.

Noah took a step backward, then another. The heat radiating from Nyx’s charging attack was already intense enough to make the air shimmer. Part of his survival instincts screamed warnings as the temperature spiked beyond safe levels.

The glow in Nyx’s chest reached critical mass. The dragon’s throat bulged as molten fire built pressure behind his fangs. Those white, emotionless eyes never wavered from Noah’s face as the attack prepared to unleash devastation that would leave nothing but ash and memory.

Noah threw his arms up to shield his face just as Nyx’s jaws opened wide.

The Magma Bomb erupted like a volcanic explosion contained in dragon’s breath. A stream of liquid fire shot from Nyx’s maw, but at the last possible second, the dragon’s aim shifted upward. Instead of incinerating Noah, the molten blast struck Arthur’s shadow dome with the force of an artillery bombardment.

The dome shattered like black glass.

Fragments of solidified shadow rained down as the construct collapsed, Arthur’s carefully maintained prison dissolving under the thermal assault. The explosion’s shockwave followed immediately after, a wall of superheated air and debris that picked Noah up and hurled him across the chamber.

He hit the far wall with bone-jarring force, his armor absorbing what it could before dumping him to the floor in a heap of ringing metal.

[-150 HP]

[Health Points: 1,725/3,520]

When the dust and smoke cleared, Nyx stood in the center of the ruined chamber, breathing that familiar smoke from his nostrils. But his eyes had returned to their natural burning red, the white dominion of Arthur’s control completely gone.

Arthur staggered, blood now flowing freely from both nostrils as he fought to reassert his mental grip. The backlash from Nyx’s resistance had clearly wounded him, but his yellow eyes still blazed with dangerous intent.

“Impossible,” Arthur muttered, raising his trembling hand again. “No beast can—”

Nyx’s roar cut him off.

The Volcanic Roar erupted from the dragon’s throat like the sound of continents grinding together. The volume was beyond anything human ears were designed to process, a shriek that shattered remaining window glass and sent cracks racing through the stone walls. The sound struck Arthur like a physical blow, driving him to his knees as his hands flew to his bleeding ears.

Then Nyx charged.

Twenty plus feet of furious dragon launched across the chamber with earth-shaking force. Claws gouged furrows in the stone floor as Nyx closed the distance in heartbeats, jaws wide and ready to end the man who had dared enslave his mind.

Arthur rolled aside desperately, his hands already shaping metal from the chamber’s destroyed fixtures. The Obliteration Forge technique pulled iron and steel from every available source, forging them into a massive war mace that materialized in his grip just as Nyx’s claws raked the space where he’d been.

Arthur swung the metal weapon with desperate strength, catching Nyx across the snout in a blow that would have felled a giant. The impact rang like a bell, and the Red Death Dragon’s head snapped to the side under the tremendous force.

But Nyx barely seemed to notice.

The dragon’s tail whipped around in a counterattack that caught Arthur across the chest before he could react. The appendage was as thick as a tree trunk and moving with the force of a battering ram. Arthur flew backward through the air, crashed through the chamber’s rear wall, and disappeared into the rooms beyond in an explosion of pulverized stone.

Nyx followed immediately, his wings folding tight as he plunged through the Arthur-shaped hole in pursuit of his tormentor.

The sound of destruction echoed through the fortress as dragon and man fought through room after room. Arthur stumbled through a doorway, blood streaming from his wounds. His hands moved desperately, and crimson whips erupted from his palms—three Hemovines that lashed toward Nyx with bone-crushing force.

Nyx opened his jaws and exhaled. A casual burst of dragonfire turned the blood constructs to steam before they could make contact, the superheated air shimmering as the attack dissipated.

Arthur rolled behind a stone pillar and pressed his back against it, gathering more blood from his cuts. The crimson liquid flowed upward, hardening into armor plates across his chest. But the moment Nyx’s flames touched the blood constructs, they began to liquefy and run like melted wax.

Panic drove Arthur to pull metal from the room’s iron fixtures. A chandelier dissolved into flowing steel that reformed in his hands as a massive sword. He swung the weapon at Nyx’s approaching head, but the moment the metal made contact with the dragon’s superheated scales, it began to bend and warp like heated plastic. Arthur dropped the useless weapon as it became too soft to hold.

“It can’t possibly be time,” Arthur gasped as he stumbled through a shattered doorway, his shadow-gathering gestures producing nothing but empty air. He reached for the darkness that had served him for so long, but his hands closed on nothing. The shadows that should have answered his call remained stubbornly unresponsive.

Panic flickered in Arthur’s eyes as he tried again, and again. Each attempt brought the same terrifying result—silence where there should have been power, emptiness where shadows should have flowed.

Nyx burst through the wall behind him like a crimson avalanche.

Arthur ran.

The sight of the immortal man fleeing through his own fortress would have been comical if not for the genuine terror in his movements. He vaulted over debris and dove through doorways as Nyx’s Magma Bombs turned the fortress stonework into molten slag behind him.

The chase continued through corridor after corridor, Arthur’s blood and metal attacks growing weaker with each exchange. A hastily constructed steel barrier was vaporized by dragonfire. Blood armor evaporated under thermal assault. The Sanguine Shards technique produced only a handful of projectiles that bounced harmlessly off Nyx’s armored hide.

Finally, Arthur burst through the fortress’s main entrance into the courtyard beyond, Nyx following close behind with another earth-shaking roar.

The scene outside was chaos.

King Aurelius and his flame-wielding wives had doubled their assault on the remaining shadow soldiers. Fire met darkness across the battlefield as the Ares forces pressed their advantage. But Arthur’s shadow army—his forces who should have been coordinating the defense—stood frozen in terror at the sight of their master fleeing from an enraged dragon.

Dozens of shadow soldiers, each one a hardened soldier, simply stared as Arthur stumbled past them with Nyx in murderous pursuit. Not one raised a weapon or offered assistance. The sight of their supposedly invincible leader reduced to prey had shattered their morale completely.

Aurelius himself paused in his own battle, flames dancing around his fists as he watched the incredible scene unfold. His wives, each wielding their own variations of fire magic, had similar expressions of amazement as they witnessed the dragon’s rampage.

Arthur tried one last desperate gambit, pulling metal from fallen weapons to create a protective shell around himself. The technique formed a crude but functional armor that covered him from head to toe.

Nyx’s response was to unleash another Magma Bomb at point-blank range.

The metal armor liquefied instantly, forcing Arthur to abandon it before he was cooked alive inside his own defense. He rolled away from the molten slag, his clothing singed and his exposed skin blistered from the heat.

That’s when Noah finally emerged from the fortress.

He staggered through the ruined entrance, Excaliburn clutched in his good hand and his armor still smoking from the earlier explosion. Blood streaked his face, and each step looked like it cost him tremendous effort, but his eyes were clear and determined.

“Nyx!” Noah’s voice cut through the chaos of the battlefield. “Stand down!”

The Red Death Dragon paused mid-charge, his massive head turning toward his true master. The rage in those burning red eyes flickered, replaced by something that might have been recognition or relief.

Arthur lay sprawled on the ground between them, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath. His yellow eyes had returned to their normal color, and without his shadow abilities, he looked far more human than he had in their fight.

Noah approached slowly, his sword still ready but not immediately threatening. When he spoke, his voice carried across the suddenly quiet battlefield with absolute authority.

“Where is Lucas?”

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