Chapter 28: The Way Home

Not only Rhein but even Galena frowned.

The body, which had been pierced an unknown number of times by the two holy swords, had regenerated once more.

The great dragon’s wounds were covered in pustules that constantly festered and healed, oozing green fluid.

The dragon breathed frantically, attempting to clear the congested blood from its lungs.

The team of dozens of magicians returned to the battlefield, surrounding the great dragon in a fierce fight.

Arcs of magical light and the gleam of the two Human Kings’ swords covered the massive creature.

Bathed in blood, it roared and bellowed, repeatedly unleashing a breath attack that would corrode flesh and bone on contact.

Its dark green skin was constantly tearing, but the gnarled, root-like muscles beneath its scales and skin were regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The colossal beast hovered in mid-air, its entire body now fully revealed.

Marks of sword cuts and magical burns covered its body.

The numerous deformed limbs that had grown were all hacked off by the two Human Kings.

If a head was pierced, a new one would grow; if a limb was severed, it would regenerate.

None of the damage, none of the wounds, slowed the great dragon’s movements in the slightest.

It roared, forcing back anything that came near it, its entire body thrashing wildly in the dried-up swamp.

“Sigurd, did you really kill a monster like this on your own?”

The crest on Demos’s head shone brightly as a powerful beam shot from his flintlock.

“This can’t be called a dragon anymore!”

The skin seared by the beam took on a grotesque state, the flesh and blood beginning to restructure in chaotic directions.

Countless eyes sprouted from the dragon’s body.

These eyeballs rolled madly—up one moment, down the next, then suddenly reversed.

Each eye locked onto a different target; this monster was not without a counter-attack.

It was just biding its time.

A drop of sweat trickled down Li Ruoyi’s forehead, his brows tightly furrowed.

Clearly, joining the battle at this moment was impossible.

“Sigurd!”

“Alright!”

Zigris called out Sigurd’s name, having already reached a position above Fafnir’s largest head.

He raised Balmung high, and a light like the descending dusk shone once more.

Below the dragon’s head was Sigurd, like a blue comet.

His mecha armor ejected a large amount of gas as Gram, with its long blade, struck the evil dragon’s lower jaw.

The pincer attack once again blasted the magnificent dragon head into a pulp of flesh.

The overgrown eyeballs covering the monster’s body all narrowed at the same time.

Even though he had guessed what would happen next, Sigurd had no time to issue a warning.

Another head, located below its neck, struck like an attacking cobra.

The earth-shaking roars from the other heads came, and the few magicians closest to it couldn’t even maintain their balance.

Their eardrums were shattered, and they tumbled into the poisonous swamp along with their companions.

The monster exhaled its breath once more, and the entire space was covered in a murky mist.

Sigurd and Zigris leaped frantically to get away from the mist, but it was too late.

The mist swallowed everyone present, and a strong sense of drowsiness entered everyone’s minds.

The lethargy penetrated deep into everyone’s brains, even their bone marrow.

Even Rhein’s mind, protected by the barrier, began to blur.

Rhein felt her life slowly ebbing away.

And in her haze, she noticed that Li Ruoyi, meditating beside her, seemed to be feeling the same way.

In the mist, Sigurd grabbed the nearly unconscious Zigris and charged out.

The powerful inertia made it difficult for him to stop, and the King of Warriors nearly fell.

But the magicians had already fallen into the trap; only Demos, Hank, and a few others had retreated to Sigurd’s side.

A dozen magicians lay on the ground in the distance, white foam frothing at their mouths, their bodies shriveling at a visible rate.

“Is there no other way?”

Sigurd handed Zigris to the others behind him.

The King of Warriors took several deep breaths, his brows furrowing for the first time in front of them.

Fafnir’s shattered main head regenerated once more, the fragments of divine iron mixing with the rotting flesh to form an incredibly terrifying image—a deformity that could not be described in words.

Fafnir let out a deafening roar, as if laughing.

With just one flap of its multiple giant wings, it closed the distance to the survivors.

Sigurd slammed a fist on his breastplate, and ten smaller versions of Gram shot out from different parts of his mecha armor, forming a massive halo of light around him.

The giant, grotesque monster opened its maw—a bloody cavern that made Sigurd look like an ant.

The shadow engulfed him; even the King of Warriors had no time to escape.

The jaw had completely closed.

The massive, sharp teeth clamped down on Sigurd but could not break through his armor.

The monster shook its head back and forth, subjecting Sigurd to a violent shock.

Just as the magicians were preparing to grab Zigris and flee for their lives, two brilliant cyan auroras shot out from the dragon’s mouth.

They were slashes that the human eye could not follow; the entire dragon head was cut to pieces by the eleven Grams.

As if to mock Sigurd’s futile efforts, the head tried to grow back once more, and the other heads swayed and attacked him.

As if it took no effort at all, he sliced all the dragon heads that came into his sight in two.

The still-twitching necks were flung out of view, leaving only many heavy dragon heads smashing deep pits into the surroundings, leaving only a brief arc of blood and other fluids.

Seeing that it had been thwarted, Fafnir beat its wings again, regrew an even larger dragon head, and opened its maw to its widest, preparing to swallow Sigurd whole.

“Beast! Though I am ashamed that I have no means to suppress your immortality, I can beat you until you fear me!”

Sigurd leaped up, once again facing the constantly regenerating monster, and the massive dragon head was severed once more.

“What astonishing power!”

Even Galena couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

“As expected of the King of Warriors of humanity. But that beast still knows nothing of death.”

The ten Grams formed a massive circle, enclosing the main sword, which had turned into a meteor.

With a tremendous roar, a giant light sword that seemed as if it could end the world was swung by Sigurd.

The soaring pillar of light destroyed the entire temple and illuminated the sky above Nibelungen.

“Finally…”

The old dwarf and all the dwarves had gathered before the massive metal gate they had used to enter Nibelungen earlier, bowing to the soaring beam of light.

“If they can defeat the evil dragon, the mission of the Mist Clan will have come to an end.”

The monster truly seemed to feel fear.

Sigurd’s last strike had directly turned two-thirds of its body to ash.

Even with its powerful immortality and regenerative abilities, such a heavy wound was not to be underestimated.

It dragged its broken body backward, its eyes darting around frantically.

“Come on!”

The roar of the King of Warriors sounded.

This polite and wise man let out a roar that shook the monster’s heart.

Everyone present was stunned by this man who stood tall between heaven and earth.

Cyan flames burned in his eyes, and his powerful kingly might even caused a thin layer of frost to form on the surrounding rock walls.

“However, the one to give you death is not me!”

The man had cornered the monster; it had no retreat.

Countless regenerated dragon heads bit at him once more.

But a flash of darkness, deeper than the surroundings, passed by like a clap of thunder.

The powerful force made the very ground tremble, and the countless dragon heads were severed once more.

But this time, they did not regenerate; instead, they began to rot rapidly from the wounds.

“Good work, O King of Warriors of the Norse.”

Li Ruoyi had appeared at Sigurd’s side at some unknown point, holding Gungnir and the black great scythe.

“A mere created immortality is a bit too rampant, isn’t it?”

The monster shrieked; it couldn’t believe it was no longer able to regenerate its body.

Its largest dragon head began to charge a breath attack, and the rapidly rotting body began to crash frantically against the surrounding rock walls.

“End it, you pitiful, created beast of calamity.”

Gungnir was thrown by Li Ruoyi, and the dragon’s final head was pierced through.

The breath attack it had been gathering exploded in its great maw, and its entire upper body was blasted into nothingness.

The massive monster had finally fallen.

A flash of light passed, and the massive dragon body vanished.

Li Ruoyi heard the sound of metal colliding with the earth.

He and Sigurd approached and found a large pile of metallic spheres glowing with a dark green light.

They had extremely complex patterns but all shone with the same light.

“Aika Biological Amplification Core.”

The same term was spoken simultaneously by Li Ruoyi and Sigurd, but neither showed any surprise.

From everything that had just happened, it was clear that this King of Warriors knew what he had experienced; otherwise, he wouldn’t have sat at the door waiting for him to bring the key.

In the pile of metallic spheres was the charred corpse of a giant lizard.

Just a creature less than two meters long could be amplified to this extent!

The poisonous swamp from before burst with the same dark green fluorescence—an entire pool of amplification cores!

This was probably the so-called Rhinegold.

If someone were to use them for war, creating countless monsters like Fafnir, they could indeed rule the world.

“What a magnificent sight!”

A ball of flesh rolled in.

“You really defeated this evil dragon!”

It was the dwarf Alberich.

He passed between Li Ruoyi’s legs and came to the edge of the poisonous swamp, looking at the pool full of dark green glowing metallic spheres, his eyes shining with greed.

“Just as we agreed, you solved the problem of the evil dragon, and your safety is guaranteed.”

Alberich picked up the largest and greenest one.

“And this Rhinegold belongs to me!”

“No, Mr. Alberich, I may have to break my promise,” Li Ruoyi said slowly and coldly.

“This is not something that should be left in this world.”

“Wait! What nonsense are you talking about!”

Alberich pressed his face against the metallic sphere in his hands.

“With these, I can make the dwarves the masters of the planet, and I will be their king!”

“Oh, right!”

Alberich seemed to think of something and pointed his short, fat finger at Li Ruoyi.

“You want them too, right! We can split them fifty-fifty!”

“So you are unwilling to give up this treasure no matter what?”

“That’s right! Unless I die!”

Alberich turned his back, looking at the pool full of hope.

He was just short of diving in and embracing his beautiful dream.

“Finally!”

Alberich felt a huge force piercing his body.

The sharp tip of Gungnir had run him through.

His body, like a model that had lost its support, rolled into the poisonous swamp.

“Leave. If anyone covets this treasure, their fate will be the same as his,” Li Ruoyi’s voice was cold and brooked no refusal.

With Li Ruoyi’s support, Rhein walked to the metal gate at the entrance.

The once mist-shrouded Nibelungen was bathed in warm sunlight for the first time in a long while.

Greeting Li Ruoyi and the others were the dwarves, who had completely surrounded the steps of the entrance.

Li Ruoyi raised Gungnir high, and as if on command, the dwarves all bowed their heads.

“Hero! Since you hold Gungnir, it means you have seen Lord Odin.”

The old dwarf humbly approached the King in Black.

“Is he still well?”

“Old sir, he has gone to rest.”

Li Ruoyi gently crouched down, looked directly into the dwarf’s eyes, and spoke slowly.

“He asked me to say thank you on his behalf.”

“I see…”

The dwarf’s eyes dimmed.

“The great king of gods! He can finally rest!”

“Yes, and your mission has also ended.”

Li Ruoyi stroked the old dwarf’s body.

“This place is about to…”

“There is no need for self-reproach!”

The old dwarf laughed—a laugh of one who could still be cheerful after knowing their fate!

“But!”

“No ‘buts’!”

The old dwarf’s voice grew even firmer.

“Except for Alberich, all the dwarves here knew they would eventually be destroyed!”

“The fires of the eternal land of the dead will one day be extinguished. We have been forging for the Aika God-race for tens of thousands of years!”

The old dwarf pushed Li Ruoyi away.

“Now is the time! It is time for them to be extinguished!”

“It is time to be extinguished!” all the dwarves replied in heavy voices.

“Alright!”

Li Ruoyi stood up, his bangs covering his eyes but not the tears that fell.

Behind him, Rhein and the others were silent.

Everyone knew how powerful the explosion of an entire pool of magic cores of that level would be; it was enough to completely annihilate this space.

“May you and your path forward be ever-present!” the dwarves repeated, pressing their small hands to their chests.

Not a single one of them cried or was sad; they were sincerely blessing Rhein and the others on their journey.

They stood in two rows on either side of the road, guiding them out of Nibelungen.

Arriving before the layers of mist they had crossed earlier, Li Ruoyi struck the ground heavily with Gungnir.

As if receiving a command, the metallic spheres in the poisonous swamp from before began to react violently, and a powerful explosion sounded on the horizon.

The light and heat that swept through the world engulfed the dwarves and their town.

From then on, Nibelungen vanished forever from this planet.

Passing through the layers of mist once more, it was no longer as perilous as when they had entered.

The group returned safely to the bank of the Rhine where they had previously camped.

“It seems Lord Zigris has no further issues.”

The King of Warriors, Sigurd, had returned to his scholarly, aloof, handsome male god image.

“I have once again witnessed a scene like Ragnarök.”

“In any case, thank you, Sigurd.”

Li Ruoyi warmly shook his hand.

“No thanks are necessary; everything was done according to the guidance of the great god Odin.”

Sigurd smiled slightly.

“You all have your own things to do, and my mission for this trip has also been successfully completed.”

“You came here for more than just dragon slaying, didn’t you?” Li Ruoyi asked.

“How clever. Let us part ways here.”

Sigurd’s smile deepened, and he released Li Ruoyi’s hand.

“What is that saying in the East? We shall meet again?”

Sigurd awkwardly made a fist-and-palm salute, a gesture Li Ruoyi was very familiar with.

“What you want to know is in the Nordic region. I will be waiting for you.”

As they passed each other, Sigurd’s voice sounded in the King in Black’s ear.