Chapter 50

"Aiden!"

Reaching out his arm, Riley struggles to reach his friend, but Carlos holds him back, preventing his approach to that unfathomable creature. His tears fall and shatter upon hitting the ground, while in his chest his heart feels like it's slowly breaking apart.

"What are you doing?! Let me go!"

Everyone watches as only the beginning of the creature's wings emerges from the waters, something large enough to span the lake from end to end.

A roar echoes, bringing pain to some and imbalance to others, as the waters spread and the blue wings are freed from what held them. Four of the kingdom's islands were covered, becoming completely dark.

The wings rise, creating a wind capable of shaking the structure of houses and forcing those flying above the city to retreat. As they descend, the demons beneath them lie on the ground while the surrounding buildings are immediately crushed. The wind rises again, breaking and twisting trees on the hill on the left side of the kingdom, forcing Ethan and the others to struggle to stay airborne.

And the wings beat five more times...

On the fifth beat, its body breaks free from its restraints, soaring into the skies and preventing light from reaching any part of the kingdom.

The blue water of the lake significantly diminishes in quantity, revealing to all not islands, but enormous stone columns, the foundation of the entire Demon Kingdom.

Roaring, the creature destabilizes its enemies, flapping its wings, causing everyone in the cities to be pinned to the ground. Its hundreds of eyes display the dreaded ability of legends, for in the face of such an image, no one dared to move.

As it opens its mouth, the air around freezes, creating thousands of ice spikes around it. Another roar echoes, and the ice's location makes everyone realize that the entire kingdom is its target.

Ethan runs, flying quickly to the center of the lake. Destroying so many spikes in such a short period of time is impossible. However, preventing them from reaching the ground might be possible.

Raising his hands, the ambient mana hardens but maintains its transparency, creating a gigantic dome imbued with earth magic properties, primarily resilience.

However, the spikes fall, and Ethan soon realizes that this alone will not be enough. When the ice touches the dome, the mana used to create it is directly affected, freezing in moments.

"Argh!"

The dome weighs heavily, as if hundreds of tons were being placed on his shoulders. However, Ethan does not yield. As if replacing the affected ambient mana with a new one, the dome remains standing, but... not for long.

The act of exchanging the affected ambient mana for a new one requires effort and time. Luxuries that Ethan does not have in such a situation. A easier method would be to create different domes one below the other and use the next one to replace the one above, and that's what Ethan has been doing. However, this is also not an easy task, as he needs to be attentive to every corner of that gigantic place, forcing his mind to simultaneously monitor what happens to the mana over thousands of kilometers.

Flames emerge, engulfing the entire dome and reducing the weight on his back.

"Are you okay?!"

Ethan nods, and with a movement of his head, his body almost gives in, briefly tilting. Riley holds him, but that wasn't his biggest problem.

A drop runs from his nose, his vision blurs, and sounds blend together. Riley's words never seemed so confusing. Lifting his head, Ethan sees the glow of the starry sky, but... that wasn't what it was about. Beginning to scream in despair, a spike falls, passing by his side and injuring his arm.

The dome gave way.

Ice spikes fall like shooting stars over the entire kingdom, killing thousands. As they try to keep the flames around them intact, Riley looks up at the sky and sees the emergence of two shadows.

The swords swing, and the auras created collide with each other. An explosion occurs under the red sky. The spikes extinguish, and the dragon roars as it retreats, revealing under the light of the red moon those responsible for such action.

"Aiden!"

Smiling, Riley swings his body towards the skies, but this was not the time.

"Argh!"

Ethan injured... something like this had never happened before. His eyes wander over the kingdom, searching for the one who carries a unique power.

"...Sorry, Aiden..."

As Riley carefully descends towards the ground, Ethan's vision slowly returns. The blur remains, but he can see well enough to know he failed... again.

The warm blood dripping from his arm drips onto the destroyed houses. Survivors cry as they find themselves surrounded by destruction and embrace the bodies of their remaining loved ones.

Sobs echo, and the pain becomes visible to his eyes. At this moment, the earth showed itself as red as the sky.

The green hair swaying over his vision doesn't matter. The pain of the cut in his arm doesn't matter. But when the red eyes appeared and, crying, the princess appeared in front of him, Ethan couldn't hold back anymore. His eyes flooded, and his vision became even stranger. While Scarlet stands silently beside him throughout his treatment, her tears did not stop.

"I'm sorry... please, forgive me... I'm so sorry..."

*************

Hi, author here. Well, I know the chapters are getting shorter compared to the previous ones, but please be patient.

There's a story I need to rewrite again, I think it's the third or fourth time already, so the chapters will probably continue like this for a while.

Maybe they'll return to normal, with each one being around fifteen hundred words, in the next volume.

Well, lastly, thank you for reading.