Chapter 19: The Night of the Dragon

“Argh… Argh!”

The merciless pressure brought the last vampire into intimate contact with the earth.

Pain shot through his entire body from his chest, making him unable to even speak coherently, only able to produce gurgling noises.

Standing before him was the cold-faced Li Ruoyi, his massive scythe resting on his shoulder, casually whistling a small tune.

“That’s all of them, right? Though it seems the main culprit got away.”

Like an artist finishing a work, the King in Black inspected the interior of the
cathedral.

The pews and aisles were filled with the corpses of dead apostles.

It was obvious these monsters were too weak, and their nature was far too savage
and bloodthirsty.

To be able to precisely sever their prey’s necks and commit murders on the
streets under Berlin’s strict curfew without being discovered was simply
impossible.

“Besides that fellow from earlier, do you have any other powerful accomplices?”

The King in Black crouched down, looking at the vampire’s face, which was
twisted in pain.

He lifted the creature’s dying chin; the glaze-like eyes made the monster’s body
jolt, its mouth slowly opening and closing.

“Do… you think… I would talk?”

“Who taught you to answer a question with a question?”

Flames like black glaze ignited in Li Ruoyi’s eyes, and the vampire’s body began to burn fiercely.

Its form dissipated into the air like scattered smoke and dust, and the
cathedral once again returned to a deathly silence.

Li Ruoyi walked out of the cathedral and into the courtyard.

The rain had stopped, and the bright moonlight once again shone on the
cathedral’s spire.

Li Ruoyi sat on a courtyard bench and took off his blood-soaked robes.

Only after confirming there were no more sounds in the cathedral did he rise and
leave.

At the intersection of the distant sky and the earth, a dim aurora flickered—a
magnificent luminous phenomenon that appeared high above the planet’s high
magnetic latitude regions.

Why would this wondrous natural phenomenon, originally seen only in Northern
Europe, suddenly appear above Berlin?

A sliver of unease crossed Li Ruoyi’s heart.

This unease quickly became reality.

The earth began to tremble violently, and the dim aurora turned into a tidal
wave of golden light that enveloped the entire city of Berlin.

A massive impact followed, and the foundations of the entire city began to
rumble deeply.

It was definitely not a purely physical impact; it was a resonance with the
power of Berlin Acropolis’s magical barrier.

“Lord Ruoyi, I have cleared out the warehouses on my side. Was that last strike
from you?”

A thought transmission from Zigris connected with his mind.

“No, one of them got away from the church,” Li Ruoyi said with some frustration.

“The top priority now is to find the source of that power.”

Before his words could settle, towering flames rose from the southwest,
accompanied by the roars of various fantasy species.

‘This is bad!’

Only then did Li Ruoyi realize the gravity of the situation.

“Get to the southwestern city wall quickly!” Li Ruoyi shouted in his mind.

After a brief, deep breath, the Heart of the Human King within him thundered
with immense magic power.

Li Ruoyi focused the power in his legs, and his entire body shot toward the
southwest like a cannonball.

‘Ruoyi, where are you?’

A thought transmission from Rhein came to his mind.

Li Ruoyi subconsciously quickened his pace.

‘I’ve left from the church on the eastern mountaintop; it will take me five
minutes at the fastest!’

‘That last strike destroyed the southwestern city wall directly. The hordes of
fantasy species have already flooded into the city.’

‘The city wall was destroyed?!’

Li Ruoyi was clearly surprised.

Dodging the fleeing citizens, he once again accelerated toward the southwest.

‘It’s the Evil Dragon species that Haidai mentioned earlier—Fafnir!’

‘I’ll be there faster. Until then, be safe, Rhein!’

As soon as he finished, the sound of a sonic boom came from the other end.

Rhein had to cut off the thought transmission to focus on dealing with the
magical beasts before her.

A downpour once again descended upon the outskirts of the city.

Lightning snakes slithered through the black clouds, and monsters lurked in the
rainy night.

The sky looked as if it had been torn open.

The entire southwestern part of Berlin was in chaos.

As the dragon’s roar echoed, the entire city of Berlin trembled like a giant
fearing divine retribution.

The mortal soldiers behind Rhein looked extremely uneasy, trying their best to
keep their guns steady.

Countless fantasy species lunged out from the mist, shrieking as they charged
toward the defending soldiers.

Because the defense had just been assembled, they were unable to form an
effective battle line.

If the creatures got close, a chaotic melee was certain to break out.

In close-quarters combat, guns—the crystallization of human wisdom, a
breathtaking engineering marvel—would become a liability.

The bullets fired would not only fail to inflict effective damage but would also
endanger the mortals fighting alongside them.

Without the support of the city guard’s mages—who, in their arrogance, naturally
intended to use the mortal gun squads as tools to buy time for their
incantations—Rhein was left to create a magical bombardment powerful enough to
stop the horde of beasts on her own.

But clearly, the approaching horde did not give her enough time to chant such a
large-scale destructive spell.

The bloody, foul stench from the mouths of those fantasy species washed over
her, causing the inexperienced Rhein to panic for a moment.

A ghoul appeared before them.

This monster from Arabian legend, which lived in the desert, was a shapeshifting
demon capable of transforming into animals.

They would raid graves and feed on the flesh and blood of the dead or young
children, and would also lure travelers into the desert wilderness to kill and
devour them.

But this one was far too large; when it stood up, its body, which had emerged
from the ground, was nearly four meters tall.

Because it had suddenly appeared from underground, its violent movements tore a
hole in the human defense line.

A pair of giant claws stabbed toward Rhein, who stood in front of everyone.

Just as the desperate crowd heard a loud shout from above, a heaven-shaking
strike covered the horde of beasts.

That strike pierced not just the earth, but the entire world, including the
heavens.

Its attack could no longer be described in terms of accuracy or power.

Everything, including the fantasy species and the space that was their anchor,
was swept into a vortex of nothingness and vanished completely.

Emerging from the light was Li Ruoyi, who pulled her into his embrace.

The originally aggressive ghoul was also caught in the blast; half of its face
was burned away, splattering black blood.

There wasn’t a single good patch of skin on its body; even its muscles, more
developed than any bodybuilding champion’s, were torn to shreds, bleeding from
everywhere.

But it did not fall even with one arm severed; it raised its other giant claw
and swiped at the two of them.

A flash of a jade-green blade and the sound of a blunt weapon clashing rang out.

The ghoul’s malformed giant claw, along with its massive body, was severed in a
single strike by Zigris, who had appeared before them.

“No time to explain; let’s deal with the horde first.”

Li Ruoyi gave a slight nod toward Zigris.

“Get them out of here, quickly.”

Like a black sun in the vast daytime!

The King in Black charged into the surging horde of beasts.

His hands flew and danced; any fantasy beast that came near him was either
pierced through the body or had its head smashed by an unstoppable force.

After clearing a space, the King in Bblack stopped.

Gravity around him began to go haywire.

He simply stood there with his palms spread.

Pitch-black spears, undulating like waves, thrust out from every corner of
space.

It was like the apocalypse; the massive area around him became his domain.

Nothing within the domain was spared; the once-dense horde of beasts was
forcibly torn open.

The black spears came simultaneously from the sky, the ground, and the corpses
of the fantasy species already slain.

The surroundings looked as if they had been bombed; dark blue blood danced in
the night sky, only to be diluted by the pouring rain.

Eyes like black flames ignited in glaze-like orbs as they snapped open.

The immense pressure forced all the fantasy beasts to bow their heads and lie
flat on the ground.

The black spears grew and squirmed like bamboo shoots after a rain, impaling the
charging magical beasts high into the air.

Like a demon of purgatory, the reaper walked among the horde of beasts, holding
a spear and a scythe.

With his own strength, he single-handedly pushed back the seemingly invincible
horde.

Through the dense curtain of rain, Li Ruoyi stared directly at the pair of
golden eyes in the sky.

That massive black body was undoubtedly a dragon species, though it was
difficult to see clearly through the thick fog and heavy rain.

The man and the dragon stared at each other.

That feeling of connection, as if from the very heart, came once again.

Li Ruoyi clutched his chest in some pain; in that instant, he could even feel
the giant dragon’s thoughts and intentions, entering his mind like data being
inputted into a computer.

It was hostility and resentment toward humans; killing humans was like an
instinct for it.

Li Ruoyi suddenly realized that a massive surge of magic was building behind the
rain curtain.

He wanted to react, to warn the people behind him, but it was already too late.

A dark green breath that spanned the sky surged forth from before him.

It was the power of the stars, capable of easily melting the earth and piercing mountains, and it struck the city named Berlin with a heavy blow.