CHAPTER 1136: GONE

Krono’s massive body strained against the dark tendrils that had coiled around him. The tendrils grip tightening like a noose woven from pure corruption.

The sky trembled with each of his movements, golden light clashing against the oily blackness, but every time he tried to break free the tendrils only multiplied into smaller parts.

They slithered over his wings and throat, pulsing and draining, feeding, then growing stronger from his struggle.

His mind began to cloud. The brilliance gold in his eyes dimmed. His focus slipped as waves of distortion seeped into his thoughts.

His power began to stagger around him.

Zerathul’s presence crawled deeper into his consciousness. It was not just a simple whisper of anger like before. He was now whispering in a dozen voices at once with the cold satisfaction of domination.

"Krono... the great Time Dragon. The keeper of ages. Tell me, how does it feel to lose control of your own domain by me now?"

Krono growled, but the sound was weaker and burdened by confusion. His wings twitched as he tried to focus, but the world seemed to be swirling around him.

His heartbeat echoed out of sync with reality. For the first time in millennia, the Dragon felt disoriented. He was lost in a labyrinth.

"Damn it!" Eccar roared from a distance, eyes wide in disbelief. He had never seen Krono falter like this.

The air rippled with the Time Dragon’s panic. Something that should have been impossible.

"He’s being corrupted!" Eccar said.

Aesa’s jaw clenched, her frost aura flaring in defiance. "Youre right. He’s losing himself! We need to help him now!"

She raised her hands, and a surge of cold erupted from her palms, forming dozens of crystalline spears that shot forward, aiming for the dark tendrils restraining Krono.

Eccar followed with a roar, his body shifting into his full Dragon form now, his scales shimmering with earthen glow.

He lunged upward, smashing through the wave of debris, sending rocks and smoke scattering.

But before they could reach Krono, the air split open with rifts of black flame. From those fissures emerged bigger grotesque creatures that look like they were twisted amalgamations of Dragons and shadows.

Their bodies warped as if barely stable in existence, their eyes glowing red with malice.

"Damn it. They are coming again!" Aesa shouted with anger.

The monsters roared in unison then diving down toward Eccar and Aesa.

The two braced themselves. Eccar slammed one aside with his claws, its body exploding into dark mist.

Aesa froze another creature in the middle of its flight before shattering it with a burst of frost.

But for every one that they destroyed, two more formed from the surrounding void. The sky became a storm of chaotic flesh again.

Erend soared upward through the chaos, fire and lightning streaming from his scales. His fury burned hotter.

He could see Krono’s golden light flickering, dimming under the weight of corruption.

"Hold on, Krono!" he shouted, his voice cracking like thunder.

Then Zerathul’s laughter returned from everywhere again, crawling into his ears and thoughts.

"Ah, the loyal Dragonborn rushes to his friend’s aid. Touching... all of it was meaningless."

A sphere of black lightning gathered in front of Zerathul’s flickering form. The world dimmed around it as the energy condensed. Then it unleashed.

The blast struck Erend square in the chest.

The explosion of black light ripped through the sky, swallowing him in an instant. The sound shook the horizon and the clouds tore apart from the force.

Erend’s body hurled backward again, his wings faltering as the shockwave sent him spiraling downward.

His senses blurred because of the pain seared through his chest, the corruption crawling along his scales.

He crashed through the debris-filled sky now, leaving a streak of black lightning trailing behind him. For a moment, it seemed he would fall back to the ground again, but his claws clenched, and his body stopped.

With a roar of pure defiance, Erend reignited his fire, lightning, and water. They flaring in violent unison.

Steam burst around him as his power exploded outward, countering the spreading corruption. His eyes blazed with renewed fury.

"You’re not taking him, Zerathul!"

Above, Krono struggled to keep his consciousness intact. He could faintly hear Erend’s voice cutting through the haze of whispers that gnawed at his sanity.

The tendrils tightened again, and the whispers grew louder, crueler.

"You will die like the rest before you. There is no eternity where I do not reign. I will take your power."

Krono’s claws dug into the fabric of space itself. His golden aura flickered, half fading.

"Erend..." his deep voice trembled through the air, fractured but alive. "Don’t... let him win..."

Erend gritted his teeth and launched himself upward once more. His flames turned crimson, lightning arced wildly, and the air shuddered under the force of his ascent.

Zerathul’s dark form flickered and his laughter echoed again.

Erend closed the distance, the sky above split.

Eccar and Aesa were still fighting desperately against the relentless tide of monsters that poured from the rifts.

Every time Aesa froze a creature solid, another burst from the dark portal behind it.

Eccar crushed two beneath his claws, but black ichor sprayed across his scales, burning like acid.

The battlefield around them was a maelstrom of roaring shadows and shattering ice.

They couldn’t break through. Krono’s golden light above was dimming with every second.

Erend’s heart pounded as he forced his wings to carry him higher through the chaos. Lightning and fire streamed behind him, carving lines through the smoke.

"System!" he shouted in his mind. "Tell me how to stop this!"

But there was only silence. The familiar text that had always guided him remained mute.

His fury ignited. "Damn you!" he growled.

Lightning flared violently around him, arcs bursting from his scales as he forced his power to surge beyond its limit.

The sky cracked open from the pressure, clouds twisting into a vortex. In an instant, his body exploded into a sphere of white-blue brilliance that engulfed everything near him.

The next heartbeat came with a deafening sounds a shockwave of lightning spread outward, vaporizing the monsters closest to him.

When the light faded, Erend’s full Lightning Dragon form towered amid the storm. His wings wide and his scales glowing with blinding electricity that rippled across his entire body.

He blinked in a flash of lightning straight into Krono’s position who was engulfed in black smoke.

But when the smoke parted, the golden light was gone. Only silence and swirling shadow remained.

Then, from his side, a deep voice spoke, smooth and mocking.

"I already absorbed his power."

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