CHAPTER 935: PRISON OF LIGHT

Their bodies were covered head-to-toe in green scales, and they could sling a surprising amount of mid-tier fire magic.

While these green-scaled fireravens were still no match for true dragon beasts or the dragons themselves, their strength was in their sheer, unending numbers.

When a wave of them was incinerated, necromancers like Vexis and Clymene would simply raise their corpses, and the newly undead beasts would rejoin the fray.

"So, bro. What do you think of my little pets?" Leonidas’s voice boomed with pride through their private channel.

"They’re brutally effective," Orion admitted without hesitation. The praise was genuine. "If they weren’t up against dragons with their insane magic Resistance, your fireravens would scorch the earth clean of any enemy."

"Heh, I’m not just hyping them up. On a land-based battlefield, they’re a certified apocalypse," Leonidas said, though a hint of pain crept into his voice. "It’s just... the attrition rate is staggering."

Even with his deep reserves, watching his forces get systematically annihilated was a bitter pill to swallow. His resources weren’t infinite.

The good news was that while the Champions Alliance coalition was taking heavy losses, their battle line remained stable, thanks in large part to the relentless pressure from the undead armies. The bad news was that the dragons had support units of their own—specifically, dragons that wielded light magic, capable of purging undead and dispelling enchantments.

These light-wielders were priority number one for Demon Makareth, Isabella, and Gustalon. And right now, they were making a play.

"Isabella, cover me!" Demon Makareth roared, beating his wings as he hefted his blade, preparing to charge deep into the dragon army’s formation to execute the white dragon casting the radiant spells.

Isabella, already mounted on her colossal dragon, was one step ahead of him, diving into the fray. But her path was immediately intercepted by two Legendary-level dragons, one green and one red, who pinned her down in a brutal dogfight.

Demon Makareth’s form flickered, phasing through space in a series of short, sharp jumps. But just as he was about to reach his target, a defensive ward flared into existence, taking the shape of a massive, shimmering brass dragon.

Makareth’s scimitar struck it twice in quick succession, the impacts sending violent shudders through the construct, but the barrier held.

"I’ll control the field! Wait for my opening!" Gustalon’s voice echoed across the wind.

A moment later, a massive vortex erupted with Makareth at its epicenter. The storm expanded rapidly, its tearing, pulling forces intensifying with every passing second. As the maelstrom reached its critical point, the Bronze Dragon Ward began to groan and buckle until it was finally ripped apart by the gale.

"Hahaha! Perfect! Watch this—Abyssal Rend!" Makareth roared.

Transcendent power flared around him as Abyssal energy engulfed his body. He became a streak of pure black blade aura, hurtling toward the now-exposed white dragon.

"Insolence!"

From the rear of the dragon formation, a mountain-sized black dragon opened its maw and spat a beam of pure darkness, aimed directly at Makareth.

"You dare interfere in a children’s squabble?" a new voice thundered. "Have you dragons devoured your own honor? You shameless lizards!"

Leonidas appeared in a flash of teleportation high above the battlefield, slamming a closed fist into the beam of dark energy and shattering it into nothing.

"Finally decided to show yourselves?"

Orion, trident in hand, walked on the air itself, each step solid as he came to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Leonidas.

In the distance, two immense forms materialized—the black dragon and a massive white dragon, their true forms blotting out the sky as they surged forward.

"Old rules," Leonidas grinned, his body already beginning to swell. "You take one, I take one!"

He shot forward, activating his Behemoth rage as he rocketed toward the black dragon like a cannonball.

Orion didn’t waste a second. He took a single step, and his Titan Form erupted into being, his power surging exponentially. He triggered Instant Impact, and the space around him seemed to crack and buckle under the force of his charge.

He appeared directly above the white dragon, plunging his trident downward for the kill.

The arch lord white dragon barely moved. It simply tilted its head up.

"Light illuminates all. There is nowhere for you to run."

A soft halo of light pulsed outward from the dragon’s scales. A spike of pure danger shot through Orion, and he tried to pull back, but it was too late. The halo flashed, unleashing a barrage of brilliant lances of light.

Orion’s reaction was instantaneous. The Icy Bone Armor from his trident’s Flame of Will materialized around him. It shattered a microsecond later.

His Ghostbone Armor flared up next. It, too, was instantly destroyed.

Even the dragonscale leather armor gifted to him by his commander offered no resistance. The lances of light punched through his defenses as if they were paper.

In the space of a single heartbeat, his body was perforated by dozens of searing wounds.

Hahh!

The devastating blow sent him reeling, but he used the momentum to create distance. Not far away, he hovered in the air as his flesh began to writhe. Under the healing effect of his Titan bloodline, the gaping holes in his body sealed over at a visible rate. Within a few breaths, he was whole again.

"Interesting," Orion said, his voice steady despite the lingering pain. "You’re stronger than I expected."

He had never faced an enemy this terrifying. This white dragon exuded an overwhelming sense of crisis, but also... a strange familiarity. And its tone—it spoke as if it knew him.

"Who are you?"

"Who I am," the white dragon rumbled, a chilling grin spreading across its reptilian face, "is something you will learn soon enough."

Without any further movement, the light around it flared once more, growing impossibly bright.

"Without light, the world is darkness. And darkness is a prison."

Orion’s pupils contracted. An impossible sensation washed over him—the distance between himself and the white dragon was stretching to infinity.

It was as if the dragon was a lone star in the void, and Orion was being cast out from its light, banished into the absolute dark. Yet he knew, with chilling certainty, that he hadn’t moved an inch.

The light around him was simply gone, sucked away, absorbed by the dragon. The stark contrast created a powerful hallucination, a feeling of being exiled by light itself. He was trapped in a pocket of absolute blackness, unable to do anything, because his enemy was now an infinite distance away, far outside his attack range.

He was, in a very real sense, imprisoned.

"Let me guess," the dragon’s voice echoed in his ear, calm, superior, and impossibly condescending. "Your aura... it is very similar to that of the tomb raider. Is this your avatar? Or perhaps your puppet?"

The voice paused.

"I will give you one chance. Return what you stole from me, and I shall spare your life."

At those words, the blood drained from Orion’s face. He knew. He finally knew who this was.

The Great Dragon King of Light, Mondusath!

No, that couldn’t be right. This had to be an avatar. A puppet.

"It seems you recognize me now," the white dragon said, its voice resonating with satisfaction. "Return my property, or tell me where it is."

It began to walk forward through the void, raising one massive claw. At its tip, a sphere of incandescent light began to coalesce.

Orion tried to use Instant Impact to escape the banishment of light, but while he felt the skill activate successfully each time, his body remained stubbornly locked in place, a prisoner in the suffocating dark.